Sisters

taker and the general merchant, who, shutting his shop at six, was free to make the sailor's acquaintance, and help him to spend a pleasan

d full of them, and batches had been arriving at intervals through the day. At bed-time the sisters were shari

ts to one guest chamber and another, for private gossips and good-nights; when she returned to

her sister. "I could not sleep. I should only kick

tranquillise herself. Soon Rose heard sighs and phews, and sudden

the mosquitoes. It's too hot in here

the light was extinguished, and the

up over her head to be quite comfortable. From under this hood the dark lamps of her eyes shone forth, gazing steadily into the dim world-into the bit of future that she thought she saw unveiled. The loom of the trees, the glimmer of flowering bushes, the open spaces of lawn and pallid pathways, the translucent blue-green sky, the rising moon-these things made the picture, but were to all intents invisible to the inward sight.

tides. In broad day Deb would no more have stalked a man than she would a crocodile; in this soft, free, empty, irresponsible night the primal woman was out of her husk, one with the desert-prowling animal that calls through the moonlit silence for its mate. Twen

ngs, very useful for the accommodation of the occasional 'vet' or cattle-buyer, and to take the overflow of company on festive occasions. Jim Urquhart, when at Redford, always slept there; he preferred it, particularly when he had comp

as many more. At Christmas all were in use, and lined the two long walls-which Dalzell called "herding", and

d jokes, some of them at his expense; until the process was at an end, and he could reaso

n him a sort of chronic melancholy, the poetic discontent of the unappreciated and misunderstood-a mood to which moonlight ministers as wine to the drinking fever, at once an exquisite exasperation and a divine appeasement. He was a poet, a painter, a musician-possibly a soldier, or a king-possibly anything-spoiled, blighted by that misnamed good fortune which

hink of Deb-in the same new way that Carey had begun to think of her after discovering a dangerous rival in the field. To Claud, Guthrie was dangerous in his rude bulk and strength, the knitted brute power that the sea and his hard life had given him; to Gu

he had not even yet proposed to her. Matrimony was not a fashionable institution-it was, indeed, a jest-in his set. A young man with a heap of money was not expected to tie himself down as if he were a poor clerk on a hundred a year. The conditions of club life, with as many domestic hearths to visit

a great passion, to lift him out of himself. He sat and smoked, spiritually bemused, his brain running like a fountain with melodies of music and poetry, notes and words that sang in his ears and murmured on his lips without his hearing them. So a distant curlew thrilled him to a more ecstatic melancholy wit

tightly bunched in her nervous hands. Youth to youth, beauty to beauty, man to woman, woman to

ght Deb, as she pursued her stealthy way at the b

er colour? I'll have a London season with her, and see her snuff out the milk-and-water debutantes. No milk-and-water about Deb-wine and fire!-and withal so proud and unapproachable. That hulking brute imagines-but he'll find his mistake if he attempt

s head, he sat alertly motionless for several minutes, list

Deb," he re

er, but presently a low chu

as me?" she asked, imi

'm sure. It was born

d not s

see, in your ca

silence, and then she ru

came out to look for a b

matter. It is too late

I will help you to find it." He got up, and pr

s always after me to pick up my litters. I

e over here to get a quiet smoke and let those fellows subside

sorry we have to put yo

ees this weather." "I have often thought so. I can't breathe shut up. Rose is in my room tonight, and she seems like a whole crowd. I had to come out to cool

't want it.

ush. However, neither could be hidden from the second sight of love. "Don't go yet, Debbie. I never get a word with you these days,

draw it, but did

"do you know what time it is?

ody up." "And there's tomorrow to be considered

we can get them. Besides, you will sleep all

e imprisoned hand. "Well, just fi

d the man in the moon, as he looked into their

, Debbie!" His arms went round her, and sh

our and a half before she sc

st day, drove to the station to meet Guthrie Carey and t

t now, and no boredom on his. Little Harry fused them. She had remembered to bring fresh milk and rusks for a possibly hungry baby, and he sat on her lap as she fed him, and cooed to her when his mouth was not too full, and seemed to forget that any other

n, wholesome child, as worthy of his old f

ed to her when they arrived at Redf

ll not miss you, since you have been away from him for so long. He knows me now," sa

eetings and chaffings of the young bachelors, and to dress himself for dinner, while Mary carried the ba

eal. Here Deb, beautiful in limp white silk that showed up the lovely carmine of her cheeks, came forward to welcome the returned guest with an eager warmth that sadly misled him. He sat dow

iles upon anybody and anything, was certainly different from her usual stately self; or upon Claud Dalzell, who sat beside her, and seemed to have appropriated some of her lost dignity; or upon Mr Pennycuick, who fumbled oddly with carving

e, and the bottles were being sent round, he stood up, with a trembling goblet in his

is nose, and trying to wipe up the wine he was shaking over. When the fidgets had seized upon the whole company, he rushed his fence. "Ahem! I must ask you, my friends, to fill your glasses in honour of an

ent," said Mr Pennycuick-"I have given my consent. My daughter shall be happy in her own way-and I hope he'll see to it that she gets all she bargains for. He is the son of my oldest friend, a man

h, ringing voice. "Oh, please

nds of the family-to do the same. Good wishes mayn't bring good fortune, but for all we know they may do something towards it; and anyway,

thrie, with no heart upon his sleeve, bowed and drank with the rest. When the demonstration was over, and the company back i

orthiness of it. I am unworthy-I admit it; but it shall be the business of my life to correct that fault-if it is a fault, and not merely a misfortune that I cannot help. To the best of my power I will prove-by deeds, not words-that I do know her value." Deb's hand under the table here stole towards his that hung at his side, and he stood holding it until he finished speaking. "Fortune has been kind in granting me the means to surround her with material comfort-to give so rare a jewel the setting appropriate to it; for the rest, I must trust to her generosity. I feel quite safe in trusting to it. We have known each other-I bel

d straight and full at Guthrie Carey. Guthrie Carey, erect, calm as a stone im