The Hermit of Far End

en, drifting swathes of pearly mist, while towards the east, where the rising sun pushed long, di

ening birds, the rustle of a fallen leaf beneath the pad of some belated ca

beneath a heavier footfall than that of any marauding Tom, and through a clearing in the woods slouched the figure of a

down on to his head, gleamed a pair of surly, watchful eyes, and, beneath these a

ion only escaped the gallows thanks to the evidence of a village girl-one who had loved him recklessly, to her own undoing. Every one had believed her evidence to be false, but, as

e had migrated thence to Fallowdene, establishing himself in a cottage on the outskirts of the village and finding the maj

, the owner of Barrow Court, who, although himself a confirmed invalid and debarred from all manner of sport, employ

therefore not without a warm glow of satisfaction about the region of his heart that he made his way homeward through the early morning, reflecting on the ease with which last night's

dy's triumph was short-lived. Swift as a shadow, a lithe figure dar

o faced him-a mere girl of twenty, whose slender figure looked somehow boyish in its knitted sports coat and very short, workmanlike skirt. The suggestion of boyishness was emphasized by her attitude, as she stood

s Brady described them long afterwards to a crony of his, and they gazed up at the

voice that held something indescribably sweet and thrilling

irst surprise, lowered his g

mind what

ignificantly to hi

and take yourself off. Do you hear?" she adde

go your ways and leave me to go mine-or it'll be t

irl s

t gun," she said tranquilly. "But y

port shattered the quiet of the woods. Then the smoke drifted sl

beneath her eyes, and the slight young breast beneath the jaunty sports coat rose and

rtridge," she observed quietly

ady glar

ed 'ee as easy as knockin' a bir

and you would have been waiting for a hanging. Of the two

ration spread itself slo

ake," he acknowledged. "I though

irl n

that I've won and that it's up to me to d

e-don't you think it, win or n

garded him

at the house," she remarked. "If you'll d

, over his shoulder, and, turning suspiciously, he swung straight into the brawny grip of the head keeper, who, hearin

sure's my name's Clegg. Has the fellow been annoying you, Miss Sara?" he added, touching his hat respectf

as though su

ld empty his pockets he might go. That still holds good," she added, looking towards Brady, who flashed her a quick look

ed against the idea of

p, miss," he ur

gg. I promised. So

when Brady had hastened to make himself scarce

Sara? Shall I see y

"I'm-I'm quite all right. You

ched his hat and plunged

f her figure slackened, as a stretched wire slackens when the pull on it suddenly ceases, and she leaned helpless against the trunk of a tree, limp and shaking, every fi

ke," she whispered shakily, an iro

down and the colour began to steal back into her lips. At length she stooped, and, picking up her hat, which had falle

tered from the north and easterly winds by a thick belt of pines which half

ve at Barrow, the insistent murmur of the pines had held an extraordinary fascination for her. That, and their pungent scent, seemed t

inst the moonlit sky, had understood her desolation and had whispered and crooned consolingly outside her window. Since then, she had learned that the voice of the pines, like the voice of the sea, is always pitched in a key that responds to the m

f the house standing out in sharp relief against their eternal green. A little smile of pure pleasure flitted across her face; to her there was something

of the good old days when the Lovells of Fallowdene had held their own against all comers, not even excepting, in the case of one Roderic, his liege lord and master the King,

se of either tower, and, below the terrace, green, shaven lawns, dotted with old yew, sloped down to the edge o

gardens, and along one of these Sara took her way, quickening her steps

d through the big, oak-beamed hall, hurried into a pleasant, sunshiny room, where a couple of

sixty-two or three years of age. He was leaning forward, giving animated instructions to a gardener who listened attentively from the ter

iskly. "I'll go through the hot

the room to close the window, and then propell

lthough he had been a more or less helpless invalid for seven years, he had never lost his grip of things. He was exactly as much master of Barrow Court,

xhibited the waxen pallor which so often accompanies chronic ill-health, and his face was furrowed by deep lines, making him look older than his sixty-odd years. His vivid blue e

t to kiss him as the door closed qui

monocle into his eye and re

d," he observed, "both li

o brush back the heavy tress of dark hair

her experience with Black Brady. When she reached the point wher

e end of a rope one of these days-and deserve it, too.

the air-to frighten

ooked at he

e succeed?

ttle grin of unde

ushy eyebrows came together in a bristling frown, s

s replaced b

, then," came the

e me quite a nasty turn, as the servants say. I don't think"-me

of courage as self-control in the presence of danger-not necessarily absence of fear.

ighest type of courage," chuckled S

assuredly have taken his way to the guillotine with the same gay, debonair courage which enabled the nobles of France to throw down their

s ago, he had rigorously inculcated in her youthful mind

ary cause of so much that is carelessly designated cowardice. But Patrick had been very wise in his methods. He ha

ing her shrinking avoidance of the rather formidable looking beast, had composedly bidden her take him to the stables and chain him up. For an instant the child had hesitated. Then, something in the man's quiet confidence

es, but neither groan nor word of complaint was ever allowed to escape his set lips. Only Sara would see, after what he desc

her existence. Other girls had parents, brothers and sisters, and still more distant relatives upon whom their capacity for loving might severall

and staunchly loyal to one another. Perhaps this was accounted for in a measure by the very fact that they were united by no actual bond of blood. That Sara was Patrick's niece by adoption w

tood towards her in the position of a father, and though she realized that the one-time exis

nd "home" had been represented by a couple of meager rooms at the top of a big warren of a

er, and she had never forgotten the sheer, desolating anguish of that moment when the dreadful, unresponsive silence of the

ave done, but she had suffered in a kind of frozen s

friend and neighbour who was occupied in boiling a kettle over a gas-ring. "Must be a cold-'earted child as can see 'er own mother lyin' d

define her emotions, she felt that there was something horrible in their frank enjoyment of the steaming liquid, gulped down to the cheerful accompaniment of a runn

f tea and pushed it towards the child, slopping in

t's as good a drop o'

ssly; then, with a sudden passionate ges

into the adjoining room, cast herself face downwards upon the floor, horror-stricken. It was not the raucous anger of the women which

y on the ground with her face hidden,

ean it, God! You kno

from their accustomed hold, had twined themselves about this grey-haired, blue-eyed man, set so apart by every soigné detail of his person from the shabby, slip-shod worl

ved him for