Affinities and Other Stories

a lamp, which the wind promptly extinguished. And on either side of me, in gloomy silence, ploughed the Prime Minister and Mr. Harcourt. Once Sir George left the drive, seeking better walking o

m the room we had left, and it revealed two packing-cases, one small keg, and a collection of straw and rubbish in a corner. It also showed that Sir George had struck his nose and that it was bleeding

ere steaming in front of it. Mr. Harcourt had taken off his coat and was drying it

. "Go into the back room and strip of

as I am," I sai

t. "That white satin is saturated. Don't be idiotic

't," I s

isters-lots of 'em, and Sir George is a gra

t petticoats don't belong with it. And even if they did, there were about

aid stubbornly. "Please don't bother

little schoolgirl who would say limbs for legs, and who, after showing them for years in very short frocks, suddenly puts on

g women to the universities. Would any man in his se

gain, and a blue-white flash threw out the landscape. It showed a long stretch of country road, running with mad little streams of yellow water, the drive curving past and flowing a

"You are not Basil Harcourt! You had no m

y. "I got in through the chapel. And what does it matter, anyh

did you say you had had the gates taken down whe

ed, without troubling to explain. "Why in

er I saw him testing the hinges, and I flung away from the

hair brushed across the top of his head. He was more nervous than he would have had us know, and the hands-very fine, long-fingered hands they were-that laid out the cards were trembling noticeably. At every sound he raised his head and stared at the door, and his arched, patrician nose wou

d leaning on his elbows and whistling softly. Sometimes he looked at me and sometimes at the fire, and once or twice I found him watching Sir George with a curi

he whole House of Lords out searching for us, and the Premier and myself living

me thickly, and when the candle finally burned out he put his head on top of the keg and was asleep immediately. Not a

h

in a small voice, "may

rge, but he was noisily asleep. Then he edged ove

ou recall my fair offer. Some poor woman is probably having a serious

bornly, "but I want them back. They belong

ed easily. "Or dissolve them in vinegar a

ing as a gentleman, and for all I knew he might at that very minute have had the stolen Romney sewed around him like a

he was speaking gravely in an undertone and looking directly in

efore. I am sure Sir George would agree with me that they are too valuable for a young gir

will not

he replied imperturbably, and l

lippers before the fire were drying into limp shapelessness. The man in tweeds on the flo

to cut this out, because she says this story is to be read by young persons. But the modern young per

ne of the elect dropped on his elbow and b

f Great Britain, on whose possessions the sun never sets, having apoplexy on a packing-case. And out of all this chaos a moment like this: you and I alone here, where I co

had been properly raised-although I think firelig

skily, sat up and looked around him in a daze

t." He looked at us both as if to establish our reality, an

t in an endeavour to get his heel down where it belong

an. "It's a matter of miles, you know; and besides,

ghtning, followed instantly by a crash near at hand. A blue-white streak ran down the bole of a tree across the road. The thunder that followed echoed and re-echoed above our heads

lity so far in what was, to say the least, an unconventional situation. But to have him go like that and leave me there with an ordinary thief, even if he did look like a

d just outside the gates and we caught a word here and there: "Gresham Place," and "Automobile," and one sentence that stuck in my

st the door, listening. Suddenly he bolted for the keg where he had left his mackintosh, and picked it

In fact, and however strongly you may feel against it, I hope, sir, you will see the wisdom of shielding all the women concerned from publicity. And in this case it is not chivalry; it is self-protection."

ps I imagined it, but he looked older, leaner,

h; I wondered whose it had been-"and I will take you wherever you wish; to Gresham Place, or, if you will feel safer back in to

he could wire ahead and be met by-I think he said he intended to call out the reserves. I may be wrong about t

e my necklace again. For any one could tell that he only meant to get Daphne's motor to escape in and that he would probably dump Sir George and me in a ditch, or cu

of wealthy American girls marrying impoverished foreigners; and did I know that in the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police the word "home" was practically taboo! And I said I abominated England and that I coul

ainting. Sir George was very mildly interested, but The Unknown was flatteringly so. However, when I said faintly that I had ha

n't had food for-well, for some time. There's a tap in the back room: let me bring yo

e proved shockingly distrustful of me and most unchivalrous, h

ng you will have the whole shooting-match down on us here." (Item: was he

d my point I turned my back on him. He went, finally, but he stood for a

how I came to throw them at the other man. Then I told him about the theft of the picture, and that we had the thief in our grasp if we could get him. Sir George's face was very queer. When he got it all finally, however, he wakened up at once. He asked me what

entleman in there and lock the door. He would be there, as I said with enthusi

indeed. The Unknown, which is shorter than saying "The Man in Tweeds" or "The Sociable H

r is a wreck: two of them are asleep, three of them are standing on chairs and talking at onc

id coldly, "is Mrs. Harcourt-Standish

oked at me with one of

hamper, "I-you see, I never saw her in hyster

rid guilty feeling when I said it, like Delilah cutting Samson's hair, or the place where Blanche Bates took the card out of her stocking in The Girl of the Golden West. The Unknown glanced at

tely. His sandy moustache stood out quite straight, and he looked very military (or is it militant?).

said politely from the other side. "

ould not have cared. Why should I condone a crime because Nature had given him a handsome

door, and when Bagsby comes we a

nearest constable. Then Sir George would get a conveyance and make his escape after sending me on to Ivry. I would not sta

o my eyes, and Sir George was not hungry, either. He kept walking around the room and eying th

y out under the door," he said, "we will se

gentle with me when he thought I was stealing the forks. (Altho

nswer. I hoped it was meant for Sir George. And aft