The Judgment House

speak you. Wai

d almost st

Cape Colony and Portuguese East Africa; statues and statuettes of classical subjects; two or three Holbeins, a Rembrandt, and an El Greco on the walls; a piano, a banjo, and a cornet; and, in the corner,

r; but the wistfulness was due to personal trouble, for her eyes were clouded and her motions languid. But

r a colonial civil serva

"But there must be bigness in him, as well as presence of

wrapped her round with Jasmine Grenfel's cloak, and t

rian would. Besides, Adrian will never get over the drop in the mining-stock which ruined him-Rud

where all was modulated, harmonious, soigne and artistic. Yet, somehow, the handsome chambers which hung over the muddy river with its wonderful lights and shad

ighting, gambling. They were mixed with the solid achievement of talent and force in the business of life. Here was a model of a new mining-drill, with a picture o

No benign Deity could allow His own created humanity to be crushed in bleeding masses, like the grapes trampled in the vats of a vineyard. Whole cities swallowed up by earthquake; islands swept of their people by a tidal wave; a vast ship pierced by an iceberg and going down with its thousand souls; provinces spread with the vile elements of a plague which carpeted the land with dead;

bonhommie; for her humour, as her voice, was deep and strong like that of a man. It was sometimes too pronounced, however, Adrian Fellowes had said; and Adrian was an acute observer, who took great pride in her. Was it not to Adrian she had look

with something very near a smile; for he liked this woman, and hi

placed a chair for her, and with the gl

perfect order, precision, and balance of arrangement, the most peaceful equipoise. There was a great carved oak-table near to sun-lit windows, and on it were little regiments of things, carefully arranged-baskets with papers in elastic ban

more impressive and revealing moment with man or woman than when you stand in a room empty of their actual presence, but having, in every inch of it, the pervasive influences of the absent personality. A strange, almost solemn quietness stole

of Dutch architecture; of the stoep with its Boer farmer and his vrouw; of a kopje with a dozen horses or a herd of cattle grazing; of a spruit,

a gesture of pain, and a littl

and Byng entered with a cordia

for our little unrehearsed drama the other night. I see by the papers that you have been repeating your triumph. Please si

ired," she said

a small table by the big desk. He was about

he said, handing him an envelope.

this air of London, which doesn't feed you, one needs plenty of sleep. You can't play with yourself here as you can on the high veld, where an hour or two of

Raid-and al

erstand," he added with a careful look at her, as though he had said too much-"the right to try Jameson and his

n arrested," s

nced?" he asked

an hour ago," sh

d. "They'll have a close squeak. The symp

said, with an involuntary and shrinkin

own his cup of tea and looking at her intently

ted with the others; with Farrar,

bad! A rel

ne of irony. Rising, she went over to the wall

come by these

hey're lifted out of the life. That's why I bought them. Also because I liked to think I got som

t a bit-always

k was turned to him, her fa

ty in the tone. "Are you interested in Blantyre?" h

ested-as I said-

he asked almost musingly; then, as if recalling what she had said, he ad

r a face naturally so full of humour, hers

ch as I can-enough for you

d she sat down. He nodded at her e

I was studying hard,

ant

s-beautiful, I thought them; and he was ambi

d talk-once," Byng

married s

s face became shocked and grave. "Marrie

-'a big commission,' he said; and he would send for me as soon as he could get money in hand-certainly in a c

under his breath and leaned

e home for a year. From South Africa he wrote saying he was not coming back; that I could divorce him if I liked

tight to her eyes. At last she went on, her face turned away from the great kind

rly three years, till-till I could bear it no lo

in the country?" he

er hands clasping and unclasping in

is living?" h

o," was the answer in a vo

lantyre

was born, n

married s

, and left undone, you wan

eats her like a Patagonian; leaves her to drift with his child not yet born; rakes the hutches of the towns and th

th a bitter laugh which he long remembered, she looked at him for

s than let him touch me. Oh, I know what his life must have been-the life of him that you know! With him it would either be the sewer or the sycamore-tree of Zaccheus; either the little upper chamber among the saints or eating husks with the swine. I

? Let Oom Paul have him.

for his own sake, not for mine-to give him a chance. While there's life there's hope. To go as he is, with the mud up to his lips-ah, can't you see! He i

to do so-" he inte

ed, on the chance of something getting hold of him which would lift him out of himsel

your unborn chil

e. I've never seen that. I've seen them show the worst of human nature because of

burg conspiracy yet. How do you propose to

arching eyes. "You ask that, you who know that in t

l, whatever other weapons you have, you mus

handing him an envelope

f money is to be used at all, it must be a great deal. Krug

tim has nothing," s

should think. It may be a very costly b

thousand poun

ur voice?" he

penny

were you. No, by Heaven, you shall not do it,

eyes looked away, her face suffused slightly, her lips tightened-"while things are as they are, I am bound-bound by somet

n a hole-yet I'm not sure, either, Blantyre being Bla

creditor who will trust, and trading on his trust? Yet I'd rather owe you two debts than most men one." She held out her hand to him. "Well, it

ish you to go through this year as yo

umour shining in her strong face with the dark brown eyes and the thick, heavy eyebrows under a low

estiny that you were entitled to all she could give in the old year, and you s

ast with you some morn

ur, don't hesitate. As the Spanish say, It is

ll you. I'm glad to have been here, to be as near as this to your real life. Real life is

ll surely come; for I know there's much trouble in store for me. You must let me come. You are the only man I would go to like this, and you can't think wha

envelope she had left with him. Presently he opened it, and unfolded

lantyre-that outsider!" Then he fell to thinking of all she had told him. "Poor girl-poor girl!" he said aloud. "But she must not come here, just the same. She doesn't see that it's not the thing, just because she thinks I'm a Sir Galahad-me!" He glanced at the picture of his mother, a

, and he would not see Jasmine till six; but if he had gone to South Afr

len. Barry looked at him curiously; then, as though satisfied, he said: "Early morning v

yours what it is, Barry," came t

followed his lead always. Friendship should be allowed some latitude, and he had said hundreds of things less carefully to Byng in the past. The past-he was suddenly

retorted, "but it's a good deal

eal of Adrian Fel

owes is her man. Going to marry he

minding your own business, Barry. Your tongue will get you into tr

day's pressing work began, wit