Double Harness

tailed comparison of the hero of her fancy with another individual-who has been sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude for attempted murder! Concede circumstances extenuating the crime as amply as

in; neither was it the strongest point in his sister's spiritual panoply. He regarded Siby

well come up to Ima

n much longer!"

nd at going on along the same lines. Mrs. Mumple's loving auditors had heard the tale of Luke's virtues many a time during the period of his absence (that was

d for every woman," s

red Jeremy, glad to e

Jer

wly and ponderou

e got the right

d he knew it-and he'll know it again when he

e and returned to her chair, sighing desperately. But it was some relief that Mrs. Mumple had f

n, Mumples?" inquired Jeremy as he lit hi

ait, J

culated Jer

as good-looking." Jeremy had heard this so often that he no longer

les! You had tact?

g solidity. "I was there when he wanted me, and

d sister put the question simultaneousl

at your foot on my table? Tak

no difference between a foot and a hand, M

window. From it the lights in Gra

known that, my dears, though you've said nothing-no, not when you'd h

e behind Mrs. Mumple, letting h

e was, and what it all meant. Oh, I can't tell you all he said before he was stopped by the-the man who was there. So I promised him I wouldn't go any more, unle

tched at her work

men alone some

, you?" whisp

emy flung down his book with an impatient air; he res

mind my being old and stout, and he won't think so much of the time when I was young and he couldn't b

ld thing!" s

welcomed

sit on us quite so much now. It's not moral

ow passed by Jeremy, patting his unwilling cheek. She went out, and the next moment w

ve done that,"

ed your

tayed

er let a fellow alone, eve

w?" cried Sibylla,

n't got it, and if I had I

ugh. Jeremy relit his p

all it fine

and cry," he suggested. "I'm going up to Imaso

ibylla objected, with a plain hin

showing a studious disrega

he hill now? I sha

sit up

on't feel at all

when I co

t want t

u want? Why are yo

so many thi

able feminine. While mounting the hill he made up his min

gh vigorous nature was challenged at another point. He felt a touch of scorn that a man should take so much trouble to be comfortable, and should regard the achievement of his object as so meritorious a feat. In various ways everything, from the gymnastic apparatus in the hall to the leg-rest in front of the study fire, sought and subserved the ease and pleasure of the owner. That, no doubt, is what a house should be-just as a man should be well dressed. It is possib

you are

," laughed Grantley, as he stretc

dent

ooked at h

I knew it then. However, his way of putting it offended me, and I flung myself out of the house with three-and-six in my pocket. Like the man in Scripture, I couldn't work and I wouldn't beg, and I wouldn't go back to the governor. So it was sixpence a day for a week and very airy lodgings. Then i

ainst one another-a movement comm

oral character-as I say, I was all in the wron

as the

ed Grantley. "I'd told the fellows about my row, and they'd said

of what t

ality, but as an example of me-quite different things. However, I don't want to talk a

and I'm pegging away." A touch of boyish pompousness crept in. "I haven't settled precisely what line o

iness interest would enable him to procure a good opening for Jeremy-an opening which wou

miled indulgently. "There

t a hundred a year. And I do a popular scientific article now and the

lan. Jeremy would have none of it. H

live on what I've got for the sake of-of--" He sought w

smiled G

eremy admitted w

know you're not a marrying man;

it for wh

change your mi

let your f

ley l

ten years, nor even fi

ants. Hang it, even a woman c

in the evening. Grantley's fancy was caught by it, and he pressed Jeremy for a full a

he lover, with the lady outside the castl

e. Now he hesitated whether to laugh or not, nature urging one way, his

elt a fool before the warder, depend upon it! And perhaps she didn't look her best in tears-they generally don't. Besides we see what Mumples looks like now, and even ten years ago--! Well, as each three months, or whate

view, the rational and unsentimental view to which he was vowed and committed. Deep in his heart a small voice whispered

ere's another interpretation of Mr. Mumple's remarkable conduct! You see, we know he's not by nature a patient man, or he wouldn't have committed the indiscretion that broug

there on his couch, with his cigar and his brandy and soda. For Grantley's reflective smile was entirely devoid of any self-questioning or of any sense of treachery to anybody or to anything with claims to reverence or loyalty. It was for Jer

he poor old soul; but the idea was

my laugh

re were new troubles, it appeared. Lady Harriet had not given her husband a cordial or even a civil welcome; and the letter hinted that Courtland had stood as much as he could bear, and that something, even though it were something de

a of him which Jeremy's acute though raw mind set itself to grope after and to realise. The young man again felt that somehow his theories had begun to be no longer theories in a vacuum of merely speculative thought; they had begun to meet people and to run up against facts. The facts and the people no doub

tional proceeding, as her inability to give good ground for it had clearly proved; and it was nearly twelve-a very late hour for Milldean-so well had Gr

s all full of it. And on the top of it came what poor Mumples told us;

her, and she put

n't stop loving me. You don't say much, and you pretend to be rather scornful-just l

n't

ending. But just now, in the dark, when we're all alone, when nobody can possibly hear-and I swear I won't tell

Jeremy kissed her and mumbled so

was just that I wanted

ce to them above all it is most important to mark the change which has occurred. So Jeremy not only allowed himself to forget that small voice, and, turning back to Mrs. Mumple's story, once more to expose it to an interpretation of the worldly and cynical order, but he went even further. The view which Grantley had suggested to him, which had never crossed his mind till it was put before him by anot

yes fixed on him in a regard grave at first

end. She did not suspect that the idea had not been her bro

" he laughed, glad, perhaps,

m and touched his

she loves him! Don't have such ideas." She drew back a little. "I think-I think it's almo

y; it was more

he idea to its true father-mind; but he did not. He looked at his sister a

s wrath

ng about it that you could think

tigated Jeremy's offence could not help Grantley. Jeremy was loyal here, whatever he may have been