The Path of a Star

at she would have gone in. Mrs. Sand walked the floor, carrying a baby, a pale sticky baby with blotches, which had inherited from its maternal parent a con

on the floor and played with his father's regimental cap. On the other si

asked Mrs. Sand. "There-there now; he

you know, came as a believer for the first time, and so did Mis

rt of co

handkerchief and counte

ou call that a good meeting! I don'

id!" Laura retur

what the Commissioner wrote out about our

ection would now be tak

re tellin' or more touchin' than that? Fever or no fever, it does not do for m

ho

ful. "I mean the gentleman that attends so regular and sits behind, under the window. A society man, I should say, to look at h

. Lindsay. No,

rebuke about the collection had gone hom

ven't been dis

d at her superior off

he meetings. But he never attends

? He came to see you, did

n't think he's alt

he se

self. The Lord has different ways of working.

, and finally hid a badly-disciplined smile behind her baby's head. When she looked back again

of her,-"you do look nice when you've got a little colour. But if you can't se

usion was dispelled, a

ging him," she said. "He coul

m; I wouldn't say that. You may be an influence for good. It may be His will that you should be pleasant to

, and so long as I am in the Army nobody will. Not that Mr. Lindsay" (she b

t. It's only nature, and the Army believes in working with nature. If it

out confusion; her expression

I couldn't go on giving him so much of our time, and he seemed to think he

em much di

g of belonging to the Army if he was married in it;

eculatively

od you converted him, and he hadn't ought to ask more of you. But I

ares

be willing to march with us and subscribe half his pay, li

ht be p

and remarked with rising energy; "and don't you go

. Let Captain Sand pray for him too, and I'll ask the Lieutenant. Now that she's

n Sand returned, as if that might h

st be completely worn out. I should enj

d next in command later in the evening, but she resigned the infant without protest at the time. Laura carried him into her own room with s

uld not be easy to imagine a scene that suggested greater liberality of sentiment. The moon shed her light upon it, and the palms threw fretted shadows down. Beyond them, on four sides, lines of street-lamps shone, and tram-drivers whistled bullock-carts off the lines, and street pedlars lifted their cries. A torch marked the core of the group of exhorters; it struck pale gold from Laura's hair, and made glorious the buttons of the man who beat the drum. She talked to the people in their own language; the "open air" was designed for the people. "Kiko! Kiko!" (Why! Why!) Lindsay heard her cry, where he stood in the shadow, on the edge of the crowd. He looked down at a coolie-woman wi

i ho

ho t

iar air, made a barbarous jangle, a dis

to Hi

to His

were singing too, and found something like relief in the questionable

t, equally general and equally cheerful. Lieutenant Da Cruz's smile was even further significant, if he had thought of interpreting it, and there was over

hom a Eurasian beggar made elab

y did not wait. As Lindsay came closer the East Indian paused in his tale o

," Laura said. Lindsay marked with a surge of pl

was quite tru

body wou

keep to this side of the road? It'

w up her head with a half laug

instant. Then "Between us?

"if those silly things were true?" He spoke as if to a child. His passion was never more clearly a single object to him, divorced from all complicati

reminiscences of how one behaved sentimentally toward a young man with whom there was no serious entanglement. It is not surprising that he saw only one thing, walls going

, some one blessed chance, and He did more for me-He lifted the veil of my stupidity and let me see it, passing by in its halo, trailing clouds of glory. I don't want to make you understand, though-I want to make you promise. I want to be absolutely sure from to-night that you'll marry me. Say that you'll marry me-say it bef

urther than that, Mr. Lindsay, and you ought not to bring God into it-indeed you ought not. You are no

me, Laura-there are decent chaps, you know, outside your particular Kingdom o

Lindsay, and I'm very much oblig

cept it. Why, dear creature, you ar

of his eyes in her. Her tired body even clung to him. "Are you q

it's a question of the Army. You don't se

the least in the world; but Lindsay detected an evas

s concerned there i

her hand. "I daresay you think the Army very common, Mr. Lindsay, but to me it is marching on

in no wise cast down. She had not flown, she walked beside him placidly. She had no intention of flight. He tried t

e in her enunciation. "I suppose you mean hi

what do ladies generally dine in?-white satin and diamonds, or pearls. I think I would rather see you in pearls." He was aware of the i

overnment House list, just as most of your present ones are on the lists of the charita

n know how to act

w; delightful people, who will understand. A year! You will learn in three m

urpose, that I should bring the word of Thy love to the poor and the lowly, the outcast and those despised. And what I say to this man, who offers me the gifts and the gladness of a world that had none for Thee, is the answer Thou hast put in my heart-that the work is Thine and that I am Thine, and he has no part or lot in me, nor can ever hav