Sisters

fectly still, massive and inflexible, to receive her. Without approaching him-or he her-to shake hands, without looking at his face or anywhere near it, she perceived the adamantine set of lips, t

no beating about the bush, to say: "I daresay you are surprised to see me, Miss Pennycuick, but I was told-and since I came up here I have been told again by several different persons-something that I want

aking anguish; but he looked at her

ve been given an exaggerated version. I was in hopes that it was altogether an inve

-Fran

e on my promotion. She told me all the family news. And she said-

become hot, and hi

r the perception that the worst

ng to marry you, and why I had kept the engagement a secret so long."

ng his eyes for

ieved it at

so many things-they were incredible, but still I felt I had to sift the matter; and since I came up today, other people-I've been

of sleep and appetite had paled her florid colour to a sickly hue, and she looked wan and languid as a dying woma

the hang of this thing. Will you tell me straight-yes or no-have you

Oh, no, no! Not quite so bad as tha

ractic

d them, he twisted this way and that, he muttered "Good God!" as if the pious

y I never gave you-I am perfectly convinced, I have the best reas

"Of course not. It wa

of the imputation I have so long lain under with

sly: "We thought

nd them. I should be sorry indeed to leave behind me such a reputation as I seem to have hereabouts-though, indeed, a man is very helpless in these cas

h. Everybody shall know

avit, and that would not be believed. Besides, it is no

, regardless of manners,

l believe. I am going to write a letter to the newspa

of his chair with the

g so ridiculous!" h

," said she-"the on

all simply write another for the n

would be

. I must be a man first. I am not

ready! Nothing can m

hem. She lifted her eyes to look at him, and what he saw behind the

now?" she

to move to a

came to do it. I would like to understand, and I can't, for the life

her head h

d and good, as you wou

d so oppressed him in the case of the lady at Sandridge-"under a load of obligation to you that I can never hope to discharge. But still-but still-though I trust I sho

-"no, no! It was my

that with your charac

" she laugh

tell you anything? Did Miss Frances put co

nly said what she knew. I let them believe you were my lover; I am twenty-seven-I never had one-and-and-oh, I thought that,

And I DID think that perhaps, that possibly-of course, I was ridiculously wrong-it was atrocious, unforgivable-I don't ask you to fo

ng man, as if the word had been an electric

; you did not k

rious. DID I kiss YOU? You a

ge smile. "But of course it was only-at such a time-as you would h

kening in him, frightful

had been that consummate ass. The poor baby's dead hand h

mptness; accustomed also to take his own views of what was a man's part at such times. While she implored him to say no more ab

n to blame." And he then, in precise language, such as no real lover could have used, but still a

. It was a wild-sounding cackle,

nds down. "That, Mr Carey, is the one way out of it

other. "I do not wish," he lied chivalrously, "to take any other. I-I-believe me, I am not ungratefu

y from her chair, with what he would have imagined a gesture of repulsion if he ha

ly. "As if I could dream-What can you think

she swung back into the room, cast herself on the floor beside a sofa, and throwing up her arms, plunged her head down between them into the depths of a large

te or two his soft heart was so worked upon by the spectacle before him that he could think of nothing else. However little he might want to marry Mary Pennycuic

ve tried to grasp a

dare you touch me?" He was too cowed to answer, and she stood a moment, all fire and fury, glaring at him, her tear-rav

he sofa, and said to

I'm b

lled with a printed request to the user to shut it; and his dazed mind occupied itself with the idea of how this insect would have distressed her if she had not had so much else to think of. He had an impulse to hunt it, for her sake, through the green-shadowed spac

the threshold, pale, proud, with tight lips and sombre eyes. She b

ffice, Mr Carey?" she inquired, with sto

to preface the words with even a "How-do-you-do".

d to lead the

nterview, Captain Carey studied her imperious back and shoulders, the haughty poise of her head; and though he was not the one that had behaved badl

ght, as he walked away from her, and from all the glorio

, struggling between his father-fury and his o

k to you under my own roof; in another place I

t to the gist of the m

with you first." She had recovered self-possession, and wore a rigid, determined air, contrasting with the sailor's bewildermen

ed platitudes to him. Didn't he find it very dusty in town? Miss Keene, knitting feverishly,

o the encounter, inwardly calling upon his gods to direct him how to meet it. He found poor old Father Pennycuick age

nd well-that THAT was everything. I know better now. I know there's things may happen to a man worse than death-worse than losing everything belonging to him, no matter what it is. When that child was a little thing, she had an illness, and the doctors gave her up. Two nights her mother and I

uick," Guthrie Carey replied sharply-"and

e believed it if anybody else had told me; but I have her own word for

tell me what she has said, t

an put up

be said for her, and you'll really oblige me by not going into details. I only sent for you to make such amends as I can-to apologise most humbly-to express my sorrow-my shame-my unsp

if she was not

s-except that I have her word for it. She says she did it, and so there it is. And, sir, I beg your pard

nd gave Guthrie a cha

ple fact is that I made

marriage?" snarled the

ssed

ped his thumb and

kiss!-as good

ked for. Your daughter is

ot, but she

sed her of my own free will-your daughter, sir. And I am here now to stand by my act. If she will forgive my-my tardiness-as you know, I was in no pos

if threatened with an apoplectic fit. "

onal insult. Guthrie Carey, conscious of doing the duty o