Uneasy Money

is was her second visit to him that morning. She had come an hour ago, bearing breakfast on a tray, and had departed without saying a word. It was this uncanny

given it one look; then, endorsing the opinion which he had once heard a character in a play utter in somewhat similar circumstances-that there was nothing on earth so

on him with abuse and recrimination in the middle of the night. Yet she had not done this, nor had she spoken to him when bringing him his breakfast. These things found their explanation in Elizabeth's character, with which Nu

self that the poor dear must be feeling very, very ill, and s

long enough. She looked over her shoulder to make sure that s

, Nu

youth attem

e use of looking at a fellow like that an

could see that his was not a position where righteous indignation could be

y head do

burst,' said his

e thing to sa

I wouldn't h

, w

't think of an

he fell back on silence. He wriggled as far down as he could beneath the sheets a

en going to tell you what I thought of you for not sending me a telegram, letting me know where you were. I can understand all that. You were disappointed because Uncle Ira had not left you his money, and I suppose that was your way of working it off. If you had just run away and come back again with a headache, I'd have treated you like the Prodigal Son.

a faint moan of protest c

l these months that they are outside a prison. You know perfectly well that while you were running round New York you collected the most pernicious bunch of rogues that ever fastened t

ver he is, I do not want him or anybody else coming and taking up his abode here while I have to be cook and housemaid too. I object to having a stranger on the premises spying out the nakedness of the land. I am sensitive about my honest poverty. So, da

s on end. Sooner or later some happy selection of a phrase of abuse would tickle her sense of humour, or the appearance of her victim would become too funny not to be laughed at. On the present occasion it was the ridiculous spectacle o

ourself if we are in a position here to entertain visitors. Well, I'm going to make myself very unpopular with this

mean?' asked

asking him to help me

odness'

n't suppose he will be alive by then. If he is, I shall make him wash the dishes for m

tty, but Elizabeth did not hear it. She had

imple to establish such friendly relations as would enable him to reveal his identity and ask her to reconsider her refusal to relieve him of a just share of her uncle's money. He had seen Elizabeth for only a short time on the previous night, but he had taken an immedi

ose parts, owing to the black and white paint which decorated it and an unconventional flattening and roundi

Miss Daisy Leonard's friend. And such was the reaction from what might be termed his later Reigelheimer's mood that if he had been asked to define feminine charm in a few words, he would have replied without hesitation t

miring your pl

lace. The bay looks beautiful, but you can't bathe in it because of the jelly

ic

of the mosquitoes.' She paused to mark the effect of these horrors on her visitor. 'And then, of course,' she went on, as he showed no signs of

. Jolly lit

ared in Eliz

aps you wouldn't mind coming and

the

nd fetch t

up to Nutty's room, waking tha

he's b

at up v

acious!

d he said "Rather!" and is waiting to do it now. Be ready to say good-bye to him. If he comes out

here, he's

e won't be m

opening a hive. When you made me do it that tim

been smoking. Bees disli

low may have

finished a

eaven'

dear; I mustn't

lected when she rejoined him outside. He relieved her of the stool, the smoke

r you,' he said, 'unle

It was out of place in one who should hav

a veil for thi

the inhabitants of the hives were familiar and friendly with her by this time and recognized that she came among them without hostile intent, it might well happen that among so many thousands there might be

self in this way without offering a similar safeguard to her v

ghtly; 'I'm not afraid

her

o do if one of t

at I mean to say is, I could lea

sapproving than ever.

again until they

with honey, bees trampling on each other's heels, bees pausing in mid-air to pass the time of day with rivals on competing lines of traffic. Blunt-bodied drones whizzed to and fro with a noise like miniature high-powered autom

aid, 'it's only a drone.

eads, though. Her

A drone has thirty-seven thousand

I mean to say, if he misses with eight hundred of his nostri

olested him. Yet when Nutty, poor darling, went within a dozen yards of the hives he never failed to suffer for it. In her heart Elizabeth knew perfectly well that this was because Nutty, when in the presence of the bees, lost his head completely and behaved like an e

e-chamber a handful of the cotton-waste and set fire to it; then with a preliminary puff or two of the bello

ng at once, worried the perplexed officials with foolish questions, a buzzing that became less muffled and more pronounced as Elizabeth lifted the edge of the cover and directed more smoke through the crack.

ul. She resented his smile. She hun

ease, and the

. Then taking the brood-frame by the projecting ends, she pulled it out an

d holding this

a thick, bubbling fluid of some sort, pouring viscously to and fro as if some hidden fire had been lighted beneath it. Only after a closer inspection was it apparent to the lay eye that this seeming fluid was in reality compo

d for the house, his retreat expedited by repeated stings from the nervous bees. Bill, more prudent,

u have stronger wrists than I have. I will t

e go

in a few inches of the door, and then jerk

ed Bill, cordially,

ng of honey, would. She watched him as he raised the frame and jerked it down with a strong swiftness which her less powerful wrists had never been able to achieve. The bees tumble

hed them go with

ose the only way they can figure it out is that the bottom has suddenly dropped out of everything, and they are so busy lighting out for home that they haven't time to go to the root

it?' Elizabeth was s

u done i

k. Bill met he

times. You see, I spent a year on a

She felt supremely ridiculous. For this she had schemed and plotted-to give a pr

steel, grappling the souls of the elect together. Golf is one of these; a mutual love of horseflesh another; but the greate

n vanish once it is revealed to them that they are linked by this great bond. Envy, malice, hatr

den young man's presence at the farm. She had thought him in the way. She had objected to his becoming aware that she did such prosaic tasks as cooking and w

really k

m, worse luck! I could

oney was a

, sympathetically. 'Mone

ish to try anything so speculative as beekeeping, so it fe

at

ary to

don, of

es

wanted to be in the

y control her voice,

right, but I love the country. My ambition would be to have a

he past few weeks. It was ridiculous to be telling hard-luck stories about not being able to buy a farm, when he

ws on farming and the Arcadian life generally were saddening to an enthusiast. 'If I had the money I should get an enormous

hey do a lo

laughed. 'It isn't so impossible as it sounds. I came very near being able to do it.' She paused for a moment, but went on almost at

a sense of almost unbearable guilt, as if he had just done

y an awful person, an English lord. I wonder if you have heard of him?-Lord Dawlish-g

that he was crimson with emotion. He must be a perfect d

what you liked with. He was very obstinate. But, anyway, this Lord Dawlish succeeded in doing it somehow, and then'-her eyes blazed at the recollection

ut-but

don't think I was going to accept ch

n it like that. What I mean to

akes me angry to think of him, and there's no use

vealed his identity, as he had been on the very point of doing just when she began her remarks. He understood now why that curt refu

said. 'Why did you open the hive? Did

the hive, and that had been to annoy him. She scorned to take advantage of the loophole

ed him

id, and get stung, as he was; because I thought that would drive you away, because I thought then that I didn't want you down here

was a

! If I'm i

n't in t

you s

e next train. You will save our lives-mine and Nutty's too. Oh, dear, you're hesitating! You're trying to think up some polite way of getting out of the place! You mustn't g

es

an't go until you've tried t

us

is m

ve! Re

ed at him, her

ll me, I know your game is nearly perfect, but if y

Jove-ye

g told me. It's the

that you can

I'm in t

ll you come in now and help

said Lor