On the Firing Line

d without an ounce of extra flesh, Harvard Weldon

want, Miss Dent," he

than most people." Her

was Weldon. Secure in the possession of a good tailor and an equally g

ses mild exercise afte

she queried, with a whimsical glance u

ed to himself, as he noted the change. He had been at sea for three days now, and those three days had been chiefly spent in trying to penetrate the social shell of his next neighbor

ropped into the empt

a doctor twice. Once was measles, once a collar bone broken in football.

plied the word, without charity for her luckless chaperon. "Horridly seasick." S

expressive. W

as used to the du

at up, to add emphasis to her words. "Miss Arthur has been to Americ

er, or as comme

n she applied for me, she stated-" The

uld see the humanity beneath the veneering. Moreover, he liked what he saw. The blue

e state?" he

ll tales about one's co

l, and you can say what you choose. Miss Arthur is a righteous lady; neverth

had been seasi

icates as to her moral character? Or

the girl shifted to the ot

his may be a

r eyes thoughtfully fixed on the distant, impersonal point where sea and sky met; "only it is a little

rs on the sky-line. "I have h

generous of her, for she knew I was left entirely alone. Never

me in contact with English girls. At first, he had been totally at a loss to account for the haughty chill in the manner of this one. Grown accustomed to that, he was still more at a loss to account for this sudden awakening into hum

ning over the rail and staring after the receding shore with homesick eyes, he saw little to interest him. Neither did the shore interest him in the least. His own partings had come, two weeks before, when the steam yacht had put

on that the Dunottar Castle held exactly one pretty girl; the steward informed Weldon that the vacant chair beside her was his own. Weldon picked up his napkin with

ll of an ice palace. Beside her decorous ignoring of his existence, Miss Arthur, lean and spectacled and sniffy, appeared to be of maternal kindliness, albeit her only advances had been a muffled request for the salt. The next morning, Miss

s Dent in the line of steamer chairs and even bending over to pick up the novel she had dropped. In his elation, Weldon neglected to give credit to Miss Arthur whos

p and down the decks to keep their muscles in hard order, before descending for the tubbing which is the matin duty of every self-respecting British subject. This morning, instead of the deserted decks

came in sight; and it seemed, to her first glance, that she was the only unattended person abroad, that morning. Her ch

the lighthouse and are nearly opposite Can

of her fourth solitary day, Ethel admitted to herself that it was

appy?" he asked, as he sw

consolation. I tried to coax her to get up and go ashore; but

tch the lady's line of argumen

usly checked her laugh and endeav

ll only recover in order to fall ill again." "Oh." We

ook he

u would find an

rankly. "Still, I don't see h

, Weldon took a dozen st

ad a note of introduction to Colonel Scott and his wife. He is the pompous old Englishman acro

oing?" she aske

arew's mother well; she and Mrs. Scott were

up with sud

is where I have been,

e arrangement is made. Carew is the only missing

t the quaint town backed with its amphitheatre of sunlit hills and, poised on the summit, the church where Nossa Senhora do Monte keeps watch and ward over the town beneath. Ethel's experience was the broader for her hilarious ride in a bullock-dra

the stern, looking out across the gold-flecked sea, Weldon felt that he had made a long stride, that

s thoughts, she lifte

days!" she

you s

ook he

I love the sea; but ho

out there?

, if out there means Cape Town.

g all pretence of interest in the fast-vanishing town, he turned

years ago, and a summer-summer i

ldon attacked the side is

have one's seasons st

with question. "Haven'

N

it doesn't count for much until you come to Christmas. No England-born mortal c

n lau

or for a chimney corner?" he as

sent back to school and for a year of social life. My little brother goes to Harrow in two y

nodded

o often, though. So in reality you are almo

azy little place; now it is pandemonium, soldiers and supplies

le answered the pau

d, after a prol

hts that darted back to her from the crests of the waves, seemed to be holding her in an hypnotic trance. Out of the midst of the trance she

as if I were ready for anything. I went out to Aldershot, one day last year; but that was only so many dainty frills, so much playing soldier. That's not what I mean at all." Turning suddenly, she looked up directly into Weldon's dark gray eyes. "One of my cousins wants t

what you

ifted itse

er on the men who are starting for the front. If I could know that one man, one single

dancing waves. When at length she spoke again, she was once m

don?" she asked, with an accent so utterly conve

," he replied, in an accent

her eyes drawn to meet his e

o make myself a place

ished, and she gave him her h

ld it," she responded slowly.