By Right of Purchase

ent a fortnight there now, and was beginning to find the easy-going life of its inmates somewhat pleasant, though at first it had caused him contemptuous astonishment. Nobod

he Barrock hollow were so ill-kept and rutted that he wondered how any one could haul a full load along them, and rotting gates and tottering dry-stone walls dotted the entire ac

into the land, you would be astonished

. We are, as you have no doubt noticed, confoundedly hard-up, and a tenant with cap

ly. "But what you folks spend personally in a c

ervice, and we might let the house to a shooting tenant; that is, the thing is physically practicable. The trouble is that it wouldn't suit me, an

Jimmy; but his own life hitherto had been one of strenuous endeavour and Sparta

e terrace an hour after dinner with his cigar. There was a clear moon above him, and in the air a faint, astrin

e down the staircase at the end of the gallery farthest from him and moved in Leland's direction. She wore a light evening gown, a fleecy white wrap concealing her shoulders and part of her dark hair. Flowing straight to the delicate incurving of waist, it emphasised by suggestion the outline of her shapely figure. Leland felt a little thrill as she ca

pped and seated herself on an old stone bench close to wher

e. "It would be a pity. Jimmy gave me two or

in the habit of throwing anything

ngland I don't think I ever wasted anything, effort or materia

rrock-holme. Still, why aren't you playing bridge or billiards? Was t

en ridden sixty in my own country, and, when it's light

re a f

of the biggest holdings on this property, and I've over a thousand cattle on the new range amon

all your t

n to the railroad on the bob-sledges then. In summer it's work from sun-

dder might have expressed

waste of life? You have no

s to the other question, there are people who want the wheat we raise. Some of them want it badly in your own English

nd family. She glanced at her companion curiously, rather resenting his flinging maxims of that kind at her. It rankled more when she r

take a holida

wheat hadn't fallen on me in the granary. The doctor we brought out two hundred mile

u were quite young whe

ver what was to be done with the farm. They were two of the cleverest grain and cattle men in Winnipeg, and I was a raw lad, but I beat them. I was to stay at McGill and be edu

and had, no doubt, from his point of view, done a good deal with his life; but his outlook was, it seemed to her, necessarily restricted. One should not, however, expect too much from a man born in the wilderness who had had only three months of what could be considered education. She also wondered why he had told her so much, since most of the young men she came acros

e along the terrace, and Leland looked

g? I can keep it up i

You have really done e

much when he had a companion. Then he also rose, and strolled along to where a little faded lady of uncertain age, who had shown him some trifling kindness

aking love to somebody? Don't you kn

ot good at either, Mrs. Annersly.

y, one or two young women who would be wi

it worth while to waste powde

lling to sell his broad acres and settle down to

and. "You will excuse me, m

-holme. In fact, one may observe traces of, at least, a moderate prosperity in parts of this country; but we needn't talk of tha

ion. In that space of grass and flowers, moated and hemmed in by mouldering walls that had flung back the keen winds of the border for five hundred years, Aylmer looked more out of place than he had done by daylight. Leland, who had read no little English history, could almost

drily; "I see

cern you or me." She stopped, and flashed a swift glance at her companion. Seeing that he made no denial, sh

"Jimmy Denham is rat

ely to get rid of in the present state of their affairs, which is, perhaps, a little unfortunate for everybody. My tongue is supposed to be dipped in wormwood,

admit it, and, if I did, you wouldn't be pleased with me.

asked your

n't," said Leland

, too. Branscombe Denham is one of the most improvident of men, and in that respect Jimmy is very like him; but, while the strength of the whole family is in the girls, there is one thing to t

sed the lawn again just then, and Leland, following the direction of Mrs

xpected turns up, I should not be asto

would be almost indecent for several reasons, to say nothin

ly. Perhaps, in some degree at least, from ignorance of them, he had grown up with an impersonal, chivalrous respect for all women. Love as between man and woman was a thing still remote from him. On the desol

" she said. "Still, she will probably marry her companion. Branscombe Denham is usually at his wits' end for money, and Jimmy, I am very much afraid, has

no young man of good charac

gainst the characte

es it about with him. You can see it in his face. If I had a sister,

ith every day. What's more, they also naturally prefer a girl with money, and, at least, there would in their case be a tying up of

a portentous sparkle in his eyes. "Isn't it a

all, largely a m

the lawn with a curious blending of compassion and d

if I might ask you why you t

ns, and I think I have informed you alrea

"Is it Aylmer's money alone that counts

nly imagine that

atched him stride along the terrace

results," she said. "In that case, I almost

sought the card-room. It was an hour later w

him," she said to the girl. "He is a curious compound of simpli

t type was distinctly out of date now

would scarcely jar as much on one's self-respect as the p