The Path of a Star

p on the pavement with angry screams; drivers of ox-carts dug their lean beasts in the side, and turned out of the way almost at a trot; only the tram-car held on its course in conscious invincibilit

Street where she saw the off front wheel make sickeningly queer revolutions; and another, electrically close, when two tossing roan heads with pink noses appeared in a gate to the left, heading smartly out, all unawares, at precisely right angles to her own derelict equipage. That was the juncture of the Reverend Stephen Arnold's interference, walking and discussing with Amiruddin Khan, as he was, the comparative benefits of Catholic and Mohammedan fasting. It would be easy to magnify what Stephen did in that interruption of the considerate hearing he was giving to Amiruddin. The ticca-gharry ponies were almost spent, and any resolute hand could have impelled them away from the carriage-pole with which the roans threatened to impale their wretched sides. The front wheel, however, made him heroic, going off at a ta

claimed, and was beside

road. Arnold took it delicately in his own thin fingers to examine it; an infinity of contrast rested in the touch. He looked at it with anxiety so

ch," she said, grave a

them solidified. "It is quite unpleasantly deep. You must let me take you at once to the nearest chemis

duced a rupee from her pocket, where a few coins chinked casually, looked at it, and groped for ano

joined palms open. Hilda lifted her head and looked over the shoulders of the little rabble, where the sun stood golden upon the roadside and two naked children p

said. "Our

it simplified and explained; yet in that space of her two words the impossibility of mentioning it had sprung at him and overcome him. He hoped, with instant fervour, that she would refrain from any allusion to The Offence of Galilee. And for the time being she did refrain. She said, instead, that her hand was smarting absur

n buying gold lace and things from Chunder Dutt for a costume," she explained. The bags dangled helplessly from Arnold's fingers; he looked very much aware of them. "Let me carry at least one," she begged. "I can perfectly with my parasol hand;" but he refused he

Hilda, suddenly considera

ce then so very

with the conviction that she might better have said something else. But Arnold

as if to palliate the word, he added, "They will think me no more mad to carry paper bags th

fact it was the only one she had. The wide sleeves ended a little below the elbow, and she carried in compensation a pair of long suede gloves, a compromise which only occasionally discovered itself buttonless, and a most expensive umbrella, the tribute of a gentleman in that line of business in Cape Town, whose standing advertisement is now her note of appreciation. Arnold in his unvarying gait paced beside her; he naturally shrank, so close to her opulence, into something less impressive than he was; a mere intelligence he looked, in a quaint uniform, with his long lip drawn down and pursed a little in this accomplishment of duty, and his eyes steadily in front of him. Hilda's lambent observa

and the speculation in her eyes was concerned with the extent to which a muscul

things," Arnold said; "they

the sun. The blood was warm in her. She did not weigh her words. "I shouldn't like having my

ther hand," he smiled. "You will b

nto the shelter of a general disavowal. The cassock

it, too plainly expressed, that is unpleasant. But you won't find that in me either." She gave him a smile as she lowered her parasol to turn into the shop of

not surprising since they had walked and talked all the way. Their talk was a little strenuous to

Arnold said, before the battered urns

ink. And you will come up, plea

, looking at his

ut the whisky! All right!"

verage, sitting under the inverted Japanese umbrell

it was comfortable, and he leaned back in it, looking up at the paper umbrellas. You know the room; I took you into it with Duff Lindsay, who did not come there from rigidities and rituals, and who had a qualified pleasure in it. But there were lines in the folds of the flowered window-curtains dragging half a yard upon the floor, which seemed to disband Arnold's spirit, and a twinkle in the blue bead of a bamboo

fence of Galilee on Saturday ni

been wit

eally belong to Mr. Bradley;

e no one

ertent, but Stephen had no reason to imagine that she contracted her ey

, "Yes, it is an atrocious piece. B

d and precise farewell. It seemed as if he hurried. She only half rose to give