For the Allinson Honor

. Her thin white dress displayed a slender and rather girlish form; her dark hair emphasized the delicate coloring of her face, which wore a nervous look. As a matter of fact, she felt distur

ction that he had married beneath him; and this was why he had

ckerbockers and shooting jacket. The bicycle he had just ridden leaned against the hedge. Andrew had lately reached his twenty-ninth year. He had large blue eyes that met you with a direct glance, a broad forehead, and a stron

lls faded into an ethereal haziness through varying shades of gray. The head of the deep valley near the house was steeped in blue shadow, but lower down oatfields gleamed with ocher and cadmium amon

er than London in weather like this, and you're

gave him a g

m sailed. Our small flat was too far from the few people I knew; and even if it had

d shabbily furnished room. She was sitting at a writing-table with a

gs pleasant here; I tho

at sunset the moorland air's like wine. Then

he had found the house for her;

think i

ich they heard the soft splash of a stream falling int

You have put me off once or t

and took out a bundle of papers, which she handed to him. To her surpris

t all. Give m

bout the rest,"

you can't begin her

ot a capable woman, and he was thankful that she had not got into worse embarr

," she confessed. "As soon as my next re

ghtfully: "One of us should tell your husban

rectly opposite the gate, where all passers-by could see him, and

ed because Tom told me that if I was ever in any difficulty I might con

e a good deal to your husband

, and before then he helped you in some way when you were wounded, but he

ow, because it will show

began in a disjointed manner, f

ant Carnally, the Canadian, had no proper business with the wreck of my squadron, but there they were. Anyhow, only half of us were mounted, and when we found ourselves cut off we tried to hold a kopje

and his fa

e man I wanted had gone to earth beside a big flat stone, and I dropped the bullets close about it; a hundred yards I made it and the light good. I suppose I was so keen on my shooting that I didn't pay much attention when somebody said they were flanking us; and the next thing I knew a Boer had put a bullet in my leg. Anyhow, I couldn't get up, and when I looked round there was no one about. Then I must have shouted, for Tom came r

s and her eyes shone. No one could have doubte

hen he broke out of the priso

hey were used to cut defense entanglements. Then we held a council and decided that somebody must break out with the news, but while two men might do so, more would have no chance to dodge the guard. Carnally an

not the man to abandon a duty, though he was u

leg. He dropped his rifle, and Carnally slipped away. We'd ar

to you? Did the Boe

rew quietly; "

Mrs. Olcott

ew s

d Carnally, who had got clear off, and there was a chance of its being some time before they missed him. Then the fel

"So you let them take you back to p

fuss over him. Offered him a commissi

ave had a commission; and you went back to prison. Though of course they deser

that they were surprised. So far as I was concerned, it was an inglorious campaign-twice in a hospital, and s

that had secured his comrade's escape. His conduct was not of the kind that catches

e. Are you sure you're quite comfortable

e happy. It's perhaps a trifle qu

did not suppose her solitude was likely to be enlivened at

e of the heather, mossy patches showing lemon and brightest green, while the gaps from which peat was dug made blotches of rich chocolate-brown. Andrew noticed it all with quiet appreciation, though he was thinking hard as he slowly climbed the hill. He had made Mrs. Olcott a promise, and h

were buried with a coat of arms roughly cut upon their tombstones in a moorland kirkyard. Then had come a break, when they were perhaps driven out by economic changes, for the family vanished from the dale and next appeared as London goldsmiths in Queen Anne's reign. Later, Andrew's grandfather, retiring from his banking business, resumed the coat of arms, bought back the peel and built a commodious house about it. On his deat

is own devices. Then on the marriage of Andrew's sister to a clever young business man, the latter was made a partner. Soon after this Andrew's father died

cked bullet had badly torn the muscles of his thigh, and now and then the old wound troubled him. Though he love

er horse to wait for him. Ethel Hillyard looked well in the saddle: tall and rather largely built, she was nevertheless graceful an

and that's not

s, and Andrew answer

of a hill. I suppose it oughtn't to worry me, but it does. You see, a lamenes

mpathetic nod as sh

ffered worse; and, after all, disti

ring you and seeing that you don't break ou

e you thinking of

struck me lately that I haven't done much anywhere else, except to catch salmon in Norway and shoot a few C

he opportunity for makin

t to be a power in the firm, and I don't suppo

lieve that Leonard had spread that impression and the others had adopted it without consideration. Andrew had been idle, but that was his worst fault, and he might change. There was, however, nothing significant in his taking her into his confidence; he had often done

ather branching out

omely; and we're now taking up a mine in Canada. Of course, the old private banking bu

fied and conservative, while Leonard was essentially modern in his methods and what is known as pushing.

eign schemes? You have traveled in the Canadian bush to shoot deer, and you seemed to like it; wouldn't it be as interesti

the country where the mine is and it's unusually rough. It's curious that yo

man if he went away, but it would be better for him and

the mine?"

istance back from the Lake o

I made in London used to go there with her father

gh about myself. There's a favor I wan

tty; nobody knew anything about her husband;

I call?" s

r befriending the lonely woman, and she pondered

tt chose this neighborhood

simply. "The Firs was empty, an

ut him, Ethel found his unembarrassed candor reassuring. He had, however, a

she said; "

new I could

unted his bicycle, but she turned her head, and watched him ride across the moor. An