Sisters

-the third house of the series which now made one. The new part was incongruously solid and modern, wi

er and curtain-cornices as by rays of a pale sun. Curly rosewood sofas and arm-chairs, and marbled and mirrored chiffonniers, and the like, were in such profusion upstairs as to do away with the air of bleakness common to a right-angled chamber of large

e himself from pipe and newspaper, baggy coat and slouchy slippers, and his corpulent frame objected to stairs; but when he had guests he considered it his duty to toil up after them, in patent shoes and dining costume, and sit amongst them until

d the direction of his quiet eyes, focussed upon an amber silk gown and its immediate surroundings. Mr Thornycroft was Deborah's godfather, and at forty-seven was to all the sisters quite an elderly man, a sort of bachelor uncle to the fam

ilarly occupied, we

l" of Mr Pennycuick's in the gay and good old times-still contrived to bring himself within the radius of Deborah's observation whenever occasion served. And being there, although silent and keeping to the background, his gaze followed her as the

t for such as he; and he seemed given over to Rose Pennycuick's tale of the pony that had corns, and the cat that had been mangled in a cruel rabbit trap. He gave her wise counsel regarding the treatment of these poor things, his deep, drawling voice an unnoticed instrument in the

tioning it now to Mary Pennycuick. "Yes," he was saying, A PROPOS of his motherless little girl-whom he often brought to Redford for change of air, leaving her to the care of the sisters until convenient to him to reclaim her-"yes, it will mean much to my child in after life to have had the refining influences of this house at the most impressionable age." Truth was, that Ruby was growing a little old for her Kindergarten, and he wanted Redford to offer her (gratis, of course) a share in Francie's governess. "I could not endure to

in its sacred duty of hospitality. "I will tell him ab

nding holidays. But Deb had issued her commands that Redford was not to be sad

nd she never neglected it. Naturally, he gave her no thanks. When he said that what Ruby needed was a mother's tender care, it was at Deborah he looked, who never turned a hair's-b

in a scarlet dinner gown, and carrying her regal head as if the earth belonged to her, he really saw no reason why he, with his qualifications of comparative youth, good looks (his sort of good looks), and notorious pulpit eloquence, should not aspire to rush in where so many feared to tread. His rush had been checked at the outset, but he was still unaware of the nature of the barrier that Deb he

s keen apprehension. Claud Dalzell's distinction was that he was the most polished young man of his social circle. He had had all the advantages that money could give and in addition, was naturally refined and handsome. To hear Claud Dalzell read poetry, or sing German folk-songs to his own graceful accompanime

wed over his modest toes. Her firm, round arm, flung along the chair arm between them, made him feel like Peter Ibbotson before the Venus of Milo-it was so perfect a piece of human sculpture. She lay back, slowly fanning herself, and smiling, her eyes wandering all the time in Dalzell's neighbourhood, without actually touching him-a tall, deep-bosomed, dark-eyed, dignified as well as beautiful

e two men, each so fine of his kind, met with the sentiments of rival stags in the mating season; the impulse to fight 'on sight' and assure the non-survival o

note the bristling antipathy behind the careful politeness of their m

r like a bull in a china shop; he nearly had the carved table over just now. He doesn't know just how to judge distanc

of a man," Deb comm

sually, "stand a person who eat

urry. I expect he couldn't g

d not

dn't remember to notice a

s the little trifle

sought Guthrie Carey, and b

. "I often wish I could do those ornamental things. Unfortunately, a man who has his work-if he st

," said clever Deb, smil

is rise to be qualified master and actual mate-no "t'penny-ha'penny" position in his eyes evidently; his anticipation of the "master extra" and the pass in steam, which might lead to anything-the whole tale was told her in terse, straightforward fashion, but with an art new to the modest sailor-man, who hated brag as much a

a husband and father at twenty-one. But this, hi