The Reverberator

tments. They had bade their companions farewell at the door of the hotel and the two gentlemen had walked off in different directions. But upstairs they had instinctive

to her sister, speaking as if this remark were a continuation

Francie, reaching f

the way you do -

hen she replied in her small flat patient voice

k to her. Francie, I ain't

her?" Mr. Dosson enquired. "I g

. I want you to spea

st but you," Francie remarked. "

omething you can do if you'll just keep quiet. If you ca

ing-on." Quiet? Wasn't she as quiet as a Quaker meeting? Delia replied that a girl wasn't quiet so long as she didn't keep others so; and she

- to make her take the oth

do you mean?"

u know

laughed with an absence of prejudice t

ant to know," Delia pursued to her sister. "If you wan

do with it?" Mr. Dos

e is it? - where his paper's published? That's where yo

in Europe, father?" Francie said

by staying right here. I want

obert," Delia made answer with decision. "

go - he told me so himself," Fran

want to come back. I thought you

ested!" smiled Francie. "A

how you could act di

ia. "And if you don't make

nds - he's so bright,"

. Dosson. "Good-night, chickens," he added; an

ould; but there was something funny in such plans for her - plans of ambition which could only involve a "fuss." The real answer to anything, to everything her sister might say at these hours of urgency was: "Oh if you want to make out that people are thinking of me or that they ever will, you ought to remember that no one can possibly think of me half as much as you do. Therefore if there's to be any comfort for either of us we had both much better just go on as we are." She didn't however on this occasion meet her constant companion with that syllogism, because a formidable force seemed to lurk in the great contention that the star of matrimony for the American girl was

compared with Mr. F

e same abilit

ee sisters who are just the sor

te me. Before they could turn round I should do somethi

ld that matter

ldn't then! He

to do is not to do

- every time," he

a moment. "What AR

's disgusting!" And

such thoughts," said

and his sisters and his society and everythin

e isn't just dying; b

" Francie went on with a s

" her sister cried, giving he

y from the others, who were stopping behind to appreciate the view, that he made her walk faster, and that he had ended by interposing such a distance that she was practically alone with him. This was what he wanted, but it was not all; she saw he now wanted a great many other things. The large perspective of the terrace stretched away before them - Mr. Probert had said it was in the grand style - and he was determined to make her walk to the end. She felt sorry for his ideas - she thought of them in the light of his striking energy; they were an idle exercise of a force intrinsically fine, and she wanted to protest, to let him know how truly it was a sad misuse of his free bold spirit to count on her. She was not to be counted on; she was a vague soft negative being who had never decided anything and never would, who had not even the merit of knowing how to flirt and who only asked to be let alone. She made him stop at last, telling him, while she leaned against the parapet, that he walked too fast; and she looked back at their companions, whom she expected to see, under pressure from Delia, following at the highest speed. But they were not following; they still stood together there, only looking,

of pretty girls in saying that our young woman might at this moment have answered her sister with: "No, I wasn't in love with him, but somehow, since you're so very disgusted, I foresee that I shall be if he presses me." It is doubtless difficult to say more for Francie's simplicity of character than that she felt no need of encouraging Mr. Flack in order to prove to herself that she wasn't bullied. She didn't care whether she were bullied or not, and she was perfectly capable of letting Delia believe her to have carried mildness to the point of giving up a man she had a secret sentiment for in order to oblige a

ready," George Flack answered. "Besides, they're not going to dinner, they're going to walk in the park.

ish we

u just under my particula

setting herself in motion again. She went after the oth

ence. I wish you'd bel

er back to him, looking away at the splendid vie

ld flatter myself you'd take any interest in it." He had thrust the raised point of his cane into the l

est if I can unders

ot today some news from America," he went on, "that

e had expected, but it w

up. It's in the seco

sand dollars?

at's the circulation. But the

ey all com

! I wish they did. It

ade her look at him now, for she already knew how much he had the success of his newspaper a

den with his idea, and one of his knowing eyes half-closed itself for an emphasis habitual with him when he talked consecutively. The effect of this would have been droll to a listener, the note of the prospectus mingling with the question of his more intimate hope. But it was not droll to Francie; she only thought it, or supposed it, a proof of the way Mr. Flack saw everything on a stupendous scale. "There are ten thousand things to do that haven't been done, and I'm going to do them. The society-news of every quarter of the globe, furnished by the prominent members themselves - oh THEY can be fixed, you'll see! - from day to day and from hour to hour and served up hot at every breakfast-table in the United States: that's what the American people want and that's what the American people are going to have. I wouldn't say it to every one, but I don't mind telling you, that I consider my guess as good as the next man's on what's going to be required in future over there. I'm going for the inside view, the choice bits, the chronique intime, as

hovered about her and pressed on her, as moneyless, and that this brought them round by a vague but comfortable transition to a helpful remembrance that her father was not. The remaining divination, silently achieved, was quick and happy: she should acquit herself by asking her father for the sum required and by just passing it on to Mr. Flack. The grandeur of his enterprise and the force of his reasoning appeared to overshadow her as they stood there. This was a delightful simplification and it didn't for the moment strike her as pos

on't know wha

- all I know - to

!" cried Francie; "but

f you'll understan

tand!" replied the gi

in silence and then he said: "Do you

out - I ain't an editor!

then you gibe at me

Why, couldn't you see me

pathise then w

your ideas splendid," said Francie,

on, your brightness, your faith - to say nothing of

ut I can't, I can'

you would, q

their asperity, she made her other point. "You must remember that I never said I would - nor

posed you'd do t

about yo

t my

e you the money - t

ccepted suitor, and then the liberality would have Francie and not himself for its object. This reasoning naturally didn't lessen his impatience to take on the happy character, so that his love of his profession and his appreciation of the girl at his side now ached together in his breast with the same disappointment. She saw that her words had touched him like a lash; they made him for a moment flush to his eyes. This caused her own colour to rise - she could scarcely have said why - and she hurried along again. He kept close to her; he argued with her; he besought her to think it over, assuring her he had brains, heart and material proofs of a

and I don't want to have any," Francie veraciously plea

y. HE'LL pass you in-that

ecause it was you that presen

ted him! I'd li

en him if it hadn't been

make me love him any better.

anything abo

marry him right off! How could I k

said Francie, trying

, and after a moment he resumed

COURSE I will!" cri

; and they presently ov

ype="