Puslapio vaizdai
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tomed to hear Hilda called a but the cards. Hilda was

pretty woman.

These comparisons, if rude, were quite involuntary, and due to the fact that we played bridge after dinner; for Hilda is one of those people who cannot pass an evening without cards. I am one of the people who cannot see faces without speculating about them, and faces are very close before one at bridge.

The fair man called Harding had a face that any one would have counted out of the way. But I was wondering if the others noticed the strain that was in it. He was absolutely controlled, hardly moved his hands, and looked at nothing

watching him constantly, and scarcely troubled to conceal it. Her blue eyes, which I never admired, were wide open and rather glassy; some excitement under which she laboured made her breathing uneven.

David sat apart from us, with a reading-lamp at his shoulder. He looked at papers which he was not reading, and hummed softly to himself.

I was not sorry when the cards were over, and the evening in the smoking-room began. I wanted to talk to David, and I felt perfectly certain that Harding would not stay with us long. He did not.

He had a headache, he said.

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I knew he was defending his could put up with that. I wife, so I said—

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have health and wealth, and a lot more than I deserve anyway. But for a woman it's different. When they set their hearts on that-well, it's awful.

There's no doing anything with
them. Nothing else counts.
And this poor girl of mine.
He sighed heavily.

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"What can you do, dear old chap? You can't help it," I said. It's kismet and all that."

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where he has a farm or something in the centre of a trackless forest, where he works like a horse from dawn till dark, and his wife slaves along with him to keep a home and five children in it fed and clothed. I tell you there isn't a farm labourer or miner of the whole grumbling lot over here who has ever done a day's work to compare with it. Eight hours is counted hardship and oppression here, and look at You that fellow, the son of a long line of gentlefolk, who will keep it up cheerfully and go till he drops, like a thoroughbred horse."

"Yes, I know. But she don't. Kismet isn't in a woman's creed, Bill. If she can't have a child of her own, she can adopt one. And that's where we are now." "Oh, come, I say! aren't going to"But we are. In fact, we have pretty well done it. It only rests with Dick Harding here to say if he consents. And this is the child, the one who came along with you to-day."

"Yes; he looks like that," I agreed. "But there is something besides, the result of open skies and endurance, I

"She has no mother, then, I suppose, that makes me think suppose ? "

64

Quite the other way. looks as if she was going to have two mothers by to-morrow or next day. It was her mother who arranged the whole thing with Hilda. Poor Dick had nothing to do with it."

"Then why didn't her mother bring her here?" I demanded with hot indignation, which was inconsistent enough.

"Oh, she wasn't well, do you see? Couldn't take the journey, but just sent the child along. I fancy she won't be well enough to travel in this direction before they sail from Liverpool. Dick tells me they are going back next week."

66 Back where ? "

"To the back of beyond there, in Vancouver Island,

of Don Pedro's saying, 'What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit.'

"Well enough for man, but it's the deuce and all for woman. His wife can get no help, you know, not even Chinaman or a charwoman. Think of the narrow house, and if it rains, all five of them inside, and all crying and crawling about while she is trying to cook the dinner."

"Oh, stuff, David! They're not a nest of kittens. They wouldn't all be crying at once."

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tomed to hear Hilda called a but the cards.

pretty woman.

These comparisons, if rude, were quite involuntary, and due to the fact that we played bridge after dinner; for Hilda is one of those people who cannot pass an evening without cards. I am one of the people who cannot see faces without speculating about them, and faces are very close before one at bridge.

The fair man called Harding had a face that any one would have counted out of the way. But I was wondering if the others noticed the strain that was in it. He was absolutely controlled, hardly moved his hands, and looked at nothing

Hilda was

watching him constantly, and scarcely troubled to conceal it. Her blue eyes, which I never admired, were wide open and rather glassy; some excitement under which she laboured made her breathing uneven.

David sat apart from us, with a reading-lamp at his shoulder. He looked at papers which he was not reading, and hummed softly to himself.

I was not sorry when the cards were over, and the evening in the smoking-room began. I wanted to talk to David, and I felt perfectly certain that Harding would not stay with us long. He did not.

He had a headache, he said.

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"Oh, come, I say! You that fellow, the son of a

aren't going to

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"But we are. In fact, we have pretty well done it. It only rests with Dick Harding here to say if he consents. And this is the child, the one who came along with you to-day."

line of gentlefolk, who keep it up cheerfully an till he drops, like a thor bred horse."

I agreed.

"Yes; he looks like I agreed. "But there is thing besides, the resu open skies and enduran

"She has no mother, then, I suppose, that makes me suppose?"

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Quite the other way. It looks as if she was going to have two mothers by to-morrow or next day. It was her mother who arranged the whole thing with Hilda. Poor Dick had nothing to do with it."

"Then why didn't her mother bring her here?" I demanded with hot indignation, which was inconsistent enough.

"Oh, she wasn't well, do you see? Couldn't take the journey, but just sent the child along. I fancy she won't be well enough to travel in this direction before they sail from Liverpool. Dick tells me they are going back next week." "Back wher "To the

there, in

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of Don Pedro's saying, " a pretty thing man is wh goes in his doublet and and leaves off his wit.'' "Well enough for man deuce and al His wife can g

it's the woman. help, you

know, not ev Chinaman or a charw Think of the narrow b and if it rains, all fiv them inside, and all o and crawling about whil is trying to cook the din

"Oh, stuff, David! Th not a nest of kittens. wouldn't all be crying once."

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"It's a horrid name." "No matter! What we have to realise is that this mother leads a life that is one incessant grind, and she wants to get her child set free from that. She wants her to have playtime in her youth, and pretty things and picture-books, and nothing sordid or struggling. Now there isn't any thing contemptible about this ambition for her child. I think it is rather pathetic. She is going back to the struggle herself. She isn't shirking any thing."

And the father? Where does he come in?"

mantelpiece, and bent his face down on his arms. A low sound came from him, like a smothered laugh.

"And the mother?" I asked. "Is she equally satisfactory ?”

He raised his head, and paused for a moment.

"Well, she is some one he married out there. I can't very well ask him. She is an unknown quantity, in fact.”

"I have only one more question to ask," I said, as gently as I could. "Is there no way out of this scrape?"

"No; none that I can see,” said David. "Hadn't we better go to bed?"

The next day was fine, as fine as the day before, just as still, and many-coloured and crystalline. The easterly wind, which was too faint to blow, spread that blue haze that turns every landscape into a picture painted with endless gradations of distance. The

"Well, you can see for yourself that he is suffering, poor chap! It was all sprung on him by the mother; he had no idea of what was coming. She and Hilda met in London, and Hilda was fascinated by the photo of the child, for she never set eyes on her before to-day." "David, you don't mean to long-wooded ridges of the Kentsay that

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ish country rolled away southwards to a misty blue line that meant the sea.

At a significant point in the middle distance, a square church-tower of powerful proportions stood out against the sky, and seemed to shelter the little red roofs of the village grouped about its base. Strangely enough, as it seemed to me, the solitary cloud-company in the sky, a cumulus mass of silvery curves, floated motionless above the tower, and made the composition com

David laid his arms on the plete.

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