The Messenger

by Greta. Julian would stir Nan's enthusiasm. Greta would dampen it. Yet Napier soon realized that,

ed in the future, she must have known that at that moment her only chance of seeing more of Napier was to fall in with Julian's program. After all, exceptional as her position at Kirklamont was acknowledged to be, she was far too level-headed an expert to leave her special charge out of any proposed diversion. Since Madge had to be included, Bobby w

than the third morning after the arrival of Miss Ellis, Lady McIntyre made Sir Willia

een sympathy and malicious satisfaction, as the girl sl

ppraising glance of the connoisseur in fem

ompatriots do me when I've been only a few hours

ou a-plenty right now. And

to-mo

t she got no good out of being on time. But to this manifestation Napier had long been accustomed. What mildly intrigued him was the manner of the girl. She had put o

peated, "why could you tell me more ab

to take pictures of it. I suppose you know how splendid Greta is at taki

ady McIntyre ask

come into the hall, with

ly did to each newcomer, the story of Frau Lenz and the providential result of taking her advice. No one knew better than Madge how this repetition bored and annoyed Miss Greta. When her mother had

s Greta, gently, "to be nearly

d not disturb the

I wish," Miss Ellis went on, "they'd

? Not they!"

u know, miss?" Sir Wil

out in their boat. Won't

ed, but the look she cast round said, "T

or attractions of a sailboat over a beastly launch. "I'll take you out and

e table after dinner. The silent interchange advanced immeasurably the sense of understanding between Miss Greta and Sir William's secretary. Perhaps he owed himself this relaxation. Though why Napier felt something owing, wasn't y

playing the chief part in it, something that appealed both to his sense of the ludicr

ly with Miss Greta opposite) to that sense of the ludicrous which other people's emotional adventures are apt to inspire in us. And the more acutely and exquisitely is this pleasure provided if either of the "parties" ha

stood a minute beside the girl, while Julian

Greta like that?" Napier

onsciously. "Am I look

ether Julian's plan was a good

e. "I don't always follow her advice, but I always wis

some of your gr

hinking I'd better marry

think you'd bet

ined in his laughter, and then seriously: "You must understand th

to give up the idea of marryi

-know,"

her to Abergarry?" Napier deman

Julian laughed. "We th

ur home!'" he mimicked. "'And is it re

rt in the middle of the moonlit road-"

grudgingly, "but I felt to-night, if she said, '

ul! It's harmless enough. Some of

ut up with it. But, I say, you aren't goin

was smiling. "Do

d, "it was rather marked, your no

that German woman along?" The ques

zenberg." Something watchful came into the face he showed to the moonlight-almost suspicious, totally un-Julianesq

ived the impression that Miss Gret

But Madge has a way of get

e came over to say good

ry kind to you at

very

your holidays? Pa

d then broke into a little laugh.

girl. She ached to bring this interloper down off her high horse.

ta, too. Mother used to say,"-Miss Ellis was still talking more to Mr. Grant than to the girl-"s

e sport he gave his soul to. He forgot his troublesome theories, his quarrel with the world's ordering, and yielded himself w

ickness of eye, showed the dreaming gone; instead of it, a mastery in al

d. The moment she grasped the fact that Nan and Julian, and probably Napier, were going on the water with or without Miss Greta, Miss Gre

had a curious idea that, though the coast hereabouts was dangerous, the farther o

t smiling during those perfect July days, though he d

lcome to Julian's little distraction, here was that rash youth planning to motor the girl to Abergarry. The only thing, so far as Napier could judge, that prevented Julian from introduci

of a growing conviction that she wouldn't "fit in" in the life over here. She was "crude," as Miss Greta had said. And she was too independent; too impulsive; too ... what was it? No repose. You never knew where she'd break out next,

hold over her is uncanny. Part of the trouble lies in Nan's sense of loyalty. It's a drawbridge and a moat and an army-horse, foot, and dragoons. I can't get past it. It's a thing I have

id anything yet?"-N

t any doubt of her. It was only that he couldn't share his wife with anybody, le

idea of the Schwarzenberg's uncanny hold, surprised Napier-though he would have said it was a natural

y," Julian said. "I'm th

atch. "Ten minutes to

an home in the motor that evening had been a low

ading the way along the cross-cut to the

know?" Nap

f to say, "how, when we're sailing, Nan always wants to go farther out?" He waited a mo

y tolerable sailor of

t woman always interfering. 'Be careful, Nanchen; leave it to

e Islands. The project was opposed by the one person with a pertinacity that Julian was sure could mean only one thing. A jealous woman's determination to preserve her ascendancy. To make a test case. She's afraid she's losing hold. She must make a stand somewhere. She makes it at Gul

ng the rocks and underbrush. "I shall go and wait in the g

ion of being left out in the cold. He, with his hosts of friends, his hosts of "affairs," scattered broadcast through the last ten years, the Gavan Napier of

aloud. The figure in front neith

tars toward a planet mightier for light and leading than

ext morning's letters, the Grants' chauf

hers come. Car will wait a

.

toward his beloved boat, riding with transfigured sails at the entrance to the cove. As far away as

n the middle of the night,

the 'Queen' a mortal hour. As if that wasn't enough in all conscience, Nan was for seeing her home! 'No, darling, no!'

was, 'So sorry!' and 'Forgive me, Greta!' They kissed. Nan went slowly back to the inn. Then, instead of turning into the Kirklamont footpath, Schwarzenberg came up the hill. I laughed to myself to think of her surprise when she should come across me. But she turned to the left and cut across the west flank. I thought maybe the woman had got b

N

They were heading straight for a nasty jar when they should see me. Well, they didn't see me. They went by not fiv

bless

pitying eyes. Evidently, he thought, in spite of his friend's air of humor

propre. "I hadn't thought it necessary to tell anybody," he said, "but I

ink it necessa

nfidence before ... all this. I

t hint would have warned me. You might have

hinking of Nan, to the ex

ent that old Julian, newly enlightened as to the part love plays, had conceive

-the tragedy of it softened Julian. His face cl

tinctly scowling, and Bobby, cheerful as usual. "Miss G

soon as they were out. "I

ve 'her friend'!" said Ma

n't sail

all the afternoon and even

urst out, as he and Napier sat smoking at the far end of the

od? There's al

her time to draw the reins tighter. She's drawing the reins tighter this minute." Julian looked up at the pile of Kirklamont, somewhere in whose innermost Nan Ellis was in attendance on a so-called sick-bed instead of being, wh

that las

the reason why. Well, now I know the reason against it."

the mainland with her 'little friend,'" Napier reflected out l

Island," Julian agreed.

The disappearance exercised a strikingly curative effect upon Miss Greta. She rose and dressed, and herself conducted a search. "I

every one but Napier had finished. Still Miss Greta li

tness, his right hand, palm upward, now raised, now lowered, with that weighing action Napier knew so well. They parted when they reached the path, and Nan came on alo

Greta exchanged a

t her prickly pertest. "S

t into the hall, announced her intention of being one of the party.

ct with a roguish significance that made Miss Greta cast down her eyes. When she lifted them, there w

papers?" Miss G

ters seemed to satisfy her. Did she rea

seem to have come,

, in the easy British fashion, "that now and then the fel

Sir William doesn't g

ngs which Sir William could not stand! One of them was in the letter

you see what they say." Sir William thrust under the eyes of his secretary the highly disconcerting letter he had just received from the Board of Trade. "Well-? It certainly didn't h

rew in, "to come in

in foreign languages, quite particularly objected to being reminded of the fact.

particular document. You gave it

remembering that

" said Gav

oying to have secret information go astra

. That wasn't really what was the matter with his view, but that was the name it went by. Sir William had married his butterfly lady for her painted wings. Finding but little underneath the blue and golden

om what was trivial, and they forgot as quickly the precise point as the general b

ould argue a relationship with affairs quite g

kind of relief. Miss Greta might quite innocently have remembe

tchful woman at the stern, youth and manhood on board-a cargo of fair hopes borne along under skies of summer to airs of extreme sweet

"How gloriously Glenfallon stands!" He quoted

ase Miss Greta. She thought the castle was "proba

d see Glenfallon tower, "Well, a

ept the horizon. And all found it featureless, t

iration. "My! what wonderful eyes y

t a patch on Ernst Pf

ur Pforzheims!"

, Mr. Ernst can do better than see a ship when it's so far away nobod

ned." In German schools, she went on, a study of silhoue

Madge's course to th

a little nearer!"

cushions in the stern; "the

sting over there when he was a boy

iliar note. "We simply

ss Greta deci

's eye. "Why?" they

d Nan was ready with, "

Gull rocks, with an expression not easy to define. But Napier felt as clearly as ever he'd felt anything in his life: she will do somethin

ed a curious agitation in that lady. While the others were arguing, she dashed her handkerchief

astonished girl, staring at h

k," said the lady,

nd. She leaned far out over the bow. Motionless as a figure-head, she faced the islands and the outer sea.

refuse to le

effort to speak in a more normal tone. "I

lian said. "They ca

n-"why are you going so near? Y

somebody goes and brings back the news. I haven't been

he bright water at a great spe

she flung out her hands. Before anybody had time to catch her, or, indeed, had any conception

econd too late. Greta, in five fat

Greta needn't have lifted her arms out of the water as the foolish do, calling frantically, "Mr. Napier! Mr. Nap-!" before, most horribly,

oats. The two girls chafed her hands. Julian, silent with re

pressed his arm. Under her breath, "You've saved my life,"

linging, soaking clothes she insisted on walking those

r admitted as much to Miss Ellis, as the heroine of the day hurried on before them, nobly concerned to to

was talking. "'Peril of death'?" she repeated, under cover of the repercussi

little I did-but suppose I hadn't been t

Greta

d at the girl

you did. And very horrid for poor G

can s

e a