Blake's Burden

along the wharf. Close at hand a big, sidewheel steamer, spotlessly white, with tiers of decks that towered above the sheds and blazed with light, was receiving the l

the gangway slipped along the edge of the wharf. It threatened to fall into the river, the girl was not on board yet, and Blake leaped upon the plank. Seizing her shoulder, he drove her forward until a seaman, reaching

nk you could have fallen in," he said. "The guy-r

of names he knew. He had the gift of making friends, and before he went to India had met a number of men and women of note who had been disposed to like him. Then he had won the good opinion of responsible officers on the turbul

Lake St. Peter. A long plume of smoke trailed across the cloudless sky, the water glistened with silvery radiance, and, looking over the wide expanse, he cou

alone, so, descending to a quieter deck, he was surprised to see the girl he had assisted sitting in a

ich usually characterized him. "With your permission." H

a small scale," he remarked

ed; "they belong

th the autocratic manners and a Roman nose? It's curious, but she

n supposing that his timely aid at the gangway dispensed with the need for an introduction, but she liked his looks, which she remembered well. She ha

believe it was my

ed: "Are you supposed to sit up all

aloon, and the maid should have relieved me. She was tired, however, with pa

mfortable. Let me move your chair nearer the deckhouse, where you'l

urning with a rug, placed her chair in a shelter

s rather unfeeling of her to keep you here in the cold." He indica

can't imagine what she means to do with them, and I don't think she knows. One of them, h

tempted to turn yonder hose upon i

t think Mrs. Keith is inconsiderate. I have much to thank

er goes down to a litt

our old home." Then the colour crept into Millicent's

issipation. As they came in a girl rose from the piano and on seeing her Blake felt a sense of awkwardness and shame. She looked very fresh and pretty, untainted, he thought, by her surroundings, and the annoyance in her father's face suggested that he had not expected to find her there. Blake saw that she shrank from his noisy companions in alarm. One of them, who had drunk

ile. "Still, I couldn't quite place you until a few moments ago, when you face

ed this warning and saw that she had made a ta

ened in India-but I felt that there must have been some

ance which lasted three or four minutes could hardly enable you to judge; first impressions are of

o opportunity of thanking you, and you gave me none to-night. It's curious that while I've only

The man who's always on hand when

ered, laughing. "What struck me most wa

posed to be rare, but, on the w

owledge of the world. She was, he felt, neither tainted nor hardened by what she had learned, but her fresh childish look which suggested ignorance of evil had gone an

came to my rescue in London you were surprised to find me

chelor dinner, you know, after a big race meeting at which

irst opened, and I was startled. But you must understand that it was not by my father's wish I came to London and stayed with him-until the end. He urged me to

ink of his dying alone in poverty. His extravagance and the shifts by which he evaded his creditors were known, and Blake could imagine how hard he would be presse

Your father was once a very good friend to me. But,

ioned Evangelicals, gentle but austere, studying small economies, giving all they could away. In winter we embroidered for missionary bazaars; in summer we spent the days in a quiet, walled garden. It was all v

listened with pity. The girl, brought up, subject to wholesome Puritanical influences, in such surroundings as she had described,

back when you were no l

, and I think the difference they must have noticed in me would have jarred on them. I should have brought

surface of the lake. The girl must have learned much of human failings since she left her sheltered home, but he thought the sweetness of c

but it's cold and getting late, and you have sat on deck l

eepy and tired. "If anything happened to

y soon unless you promise to go to your room," Blake said,

ntil the watc

s inside them makes an alarming noise, send to my room; the sec

man, and Blake held out his h

can go to rest with

tion, and she had not desired to arouse his pity, but he had an honest face and had shown an understanding sympathy which touched her, because she had seldom experienced i

ofitable occupation. He was a marked man, with a lonely road to travel, and, though he found so