A Damsel in Distress

seated not a hundred yards away-in a very special haunt of her own, a cracked stucco temple set up in the

a good way of filling in the time. It is an exceedingly moot point-and one which his associates of the servants' hall would have combated hotly-whether Albert possessed a soul. The most one could say for certain is that he looked as if he possessed one. To one who saw his deep blue eyes and their sweet, pensive expression as they searched the middle

. His reception of the poem she was reading could scarcely have been called encouraging. Maud finished it in a hushed voice, a

eautiful, Alb

s lit up. His lip

rnet I seen this yea

t a litt

been listen

dy! Ain't he a

d the horn

good,

about to say that it was like a butler, but, she reflected regretfully, it was probably

, m'

y speaking, she wanted him to be as like as he could to a medieval page, one of those silk-and-satined little treasures she had read about in the Ingoldsby Legends. And, of course, they pre

rried one of my ancestresses. He ran away with her

oncession, but he was stil

she knew what a wonderful man he was, so she didn't

en she married

was S

're marrying beneath you, Susan', 'e says. I 'eard 'im. I was listenin' at the

to terms of the servants' hall chilled Mau

Albert," she said perseveringly, "and beco

d the point, and

m'l

annot leap into strange cabs in Piccadilly unless you ha

and then tell me if it doesn't make

hing. True, 'er ladyship gave him chocolates to eat during these sessions, but for all

closing her eyes. "I

be feared, to precocious cigarette smoking, and hi

t morss the

ere-crusted

niles fell f

pear to the

heds looked s

as the cli

orn their an

lownely mo

id 'Me life

h not,'

ive unless it could be sprinkled with a plentiful supply of

- I am awe

that I w

uld suffer on hearing his pet opus assassinated by a schoolgirl. Albert, who was a willing lad and prepared, if such should be her desire, to

be able to write a wonderfu

me, m

ke to be a poet

ook his g

butcher when I g

ered a l

utch

his blue eyes, for he was now on his favourite subject. "You've got to 'a

ntly. "Killing poor animals.

y, as might an acolyte's a

ured reverently, "he says, if I'm a good boy

ts far away. Maud shuddered. She wondered if m

now, Albert. They may be

good,

cious of the need for a quiet cigarette. He was fond of

ay of adding a parting treasure to Maud's stock of g

ert. In the occasional moods of sentimental depression which came to vary her normal cheerfulness, it seemed to her that the po

est moss th

y crusted,

s even thinly crusted with any foreign substance, Lord Marshmoreton would have gone through

aid 'My lif

h not,'

I am awear

that I w

off the turf with a midiron or engaged in one of those other healthful sport

he kind of letter she wished to write to any mode of delivery so public-especially now, when her movements were watched. To open and read another's letters is a low and dastardly act, but she believed that Lady Caroline would do i

s she could remember. And then, for the first time, her mind condescended to dwell for a moment on the author of that act, George Bevan, the friend in need, whom she had met only

ited in ambush outside the castle, and not a pleasant but negligible stranger? Whether, deep down in her consciousness, she was aware of a fleeting

ns of knowing where she could find him? Situated as she was, she could not wander at will about the countryside, look

r her if he were willing. He could receive, despatch and deliver letters. If only

gotism of love, she did not perceive that what she proposed to ask George to do was practically to fulfil the humble role of the hollow tree in which lovers dump letters, to be extracted later; she did no

short cut the more rapidly to accomplish his errand, burst up

man give me thi

e. It was brief,

e down by Platt's'. It is a rather new, red-brick place. You

ed "The Man

lled 'the one down by Pla

illed there Wednesday week. Do you know, m'lady, after a c

rt's fresh young enthusiasms

staying there. I want you to

good,

, Al

, m'

if you said nothing about t

e had written and so ill-advisedly entrusted to one whom he had taken for a guileless gardener. The council consisted of Lord Marsh

as saying in a determi

ust not be allowed

shmoreto

't spoken about the note. I only mentioned it

aroline's voice s

f all people a letter for Maud," explained her b

saying nothing about it." She flushed. "The insolence of the man, coming here and settling down at the very gates of the castle! If it was anybody but this ma

said Lord

Caroline, fixing her brother with a commanding stare, "and d

he earl. "I don't know the

the very earlie

think I'll be slipping out to the rose garden

aday entered bearing papers, a smile o

moreton. You promised to go over these note

as if he were about to

e other time. I-I hav

you're

work on your notes, Miss Faraday," said Lady Caro

one wistful glance th

a sigh, and felt for