The Pool in the Desert

hats are presentable, and soft felt hats are superior, but you must not wear a bowler. I might almost say that if one's glance falls upon a bowler, one hardly looks further; the expectation of fi

rumble in me, however, as I recognized him, and I pulled the mare up in a manner which she plainly resented. It was my oppor

ut the glare, and then I could think of nothing better tha

'It's kind of you to think of it, all the sa

osario, and stood,

cked a beast of a fly of

ond season up h

exclaimed. 'Where on ear

a kind of a toy show, so I thought I wouldn't. I think now th

that you haven't met,' I urged,

care about that kind of thing, Mr. Philips. I'm not adapted to it, and I don't want

neither here nor there. But there are some people, fr

By the name of Harris! The Secretary of the Government of India in the Legis

u mentioned th

father and daughter. Mis

him that she did not paint, that she had not painted, at all events, for years, and presently I found myself in the ridiculous position of using argument to bring

et the messenger. I felt myself unlucky, but there was nothing for it but that Armour should go alone, which he did,

valuable suggestions. I was worked off my legs, and two or three times was obliged to deny myself in replying to n

can't keep it to

the air held strongly the fragrance of Armour's north veranda. In one corner there used to be a Madonna on a carved easel; the Madonna stood on the floor, and the easel with working pegs in it held an unfinished canvas. Dora sat in the midst with a distinct flush-she was inclined to be sallow-and

us half known and wholly suppressed, between us. There were later instances, perhaps, of deeper satisfaction, but they were more or l

ady Pilkey's picnic on the morrow,

u?' I asked. 'You wi

mour,' but she as obviously shrank from the roughness of pitching him in that unconsidered w

was as much as I felt I could sa

isn'

ally think you ought to do things like that at the eleventh hour?'

thing matter?'

nothing mattered, and there was no use, of c

you didn't paint,'

would have been found only to be lost again. You did

ht it was the surest

hould be so rude. He obs

ng him, would it be of any use,' I

is eyed m

esn't seem the same thing somehow. I

oo much in it,' and we smiled across t

little wet panels. There was that in it which explaine

' she exclaimed; 'I think I have done as

way an essence out of him. It wasn't of course good, but his feeling was reflec

l be pleased?' she

, reserving the rest, and she cried

aken possession o

he had drawn him to forgetfulness and response, and how presently his enthusiasm leaped up to answer hers and they had been caught altogether out of the plane of common

vivid capacity to make colour conscious was a sufficient basis on which to bring to Edward Harris's house a young man about whom we knew nothing whatever else. An instant's regard showed the scruple fraudulent, it fled before the rush of

rn that much there-that I never would be able to paint well enough to make it worth while. So I dropped it and took

aid. Why had I been shut

ons.' She laughed and dropped a still illuminated face in the palm of her hand. 'He has wonderf

ling, suddenly, an in

, and people like Mr. Armour are the people I value most. Heavens, how few of them there are! And wherever they go how the air cle

y irritated, 'don't quote the bishop.

eople put into it,' she retorted. 'I don't know whether you

as she shook her head and went to the piano. The quality, whatever it was, that the last fortnight had generated in her, leaped from her fingers; she playe

tically nothing, and had hardly concerned herself to learn anything. What difference did it make? she asked me. Why should we inquire? Why tack a theory of origin to a phenomenon of joy? Let us say the wind brought him, and build him a temple. She was very whimsical up t

row, of course,' Do

of official duties that made it so impossible for m