Halcyone

akfast with his whilom master of Greek and disc

husiasm, that he was always listened to, no matter how unpalatably Tory the basic principles of his utterances were. He never posed as anything but an aristocrat, and while he whimsically admitted that in the present day to be one was an enormous disadvantage for a man who wished to get on, he endeavored to palliate the misfortune by lucid explanation of what the duties of

highly of him, for

lock for you, John, you will go far

the flowers in the garden-enchanting in the summer time, a mere pleasure for sight and touch,

Mr. Carlyon dryly. "And I hope that j

rringha

w, I am always hard up, and presently when I want to occupy a larger sphere I shall require mo

while he shook back his silvery hair. "I had heard vaguely about your attention to Lad

things in the last two years. I am grateful to her. Next season she is bringing a daughter out-and she has a

tation of sentiment in the home cramps a man's ambitions. It is perfectly natural that he should take a wife if his position calls for it, because the society in whic

ntentiously; "we have set up a standard of impossibilities and worship hypocrisy and can no longer s

are a force now whic

e dangerous enough, but when-as many of the modern ones have-they combine a modicum of mind as well, with all the cu

t if they have souls? Not that I personall

John," the Professor said, and opening his Times, which Demetrius

Upminster renowned through all the West had come over and given his personal attention to the matter, and next year wonderful herbaceous borders would spring up on all sides. Mr. Johnson's visits and his council, though at first resented, had at length grown a source of pure delight t

ently he sat down under a low-spreading oak and looked at the house-La Sarthe Chase. A beautiful view of it could be obtained from there, and it interested him-and from that his thoughts came to Halcyone and her strange, quaint little personality, and he stretched himsel

n't make a noise, please, or rustle-the mother doe

ou get up there?" h

ou like to come up, too? There is plenty of room-and then we could be sure the do

he oak, where sure enough there was a drooping branch and he was

you have found," he said.

and there are birds, and look-down there at the roots there is a rabbit hole with such a family in it. It is onl

lace which I loved when I was a boy. It is let now because I am too poor to

but I am sorry for you that you have to let str

souciante arrogance which irritated his enemies

said. "It is best not to wh

en tell one anothe

o is Cheiro

uperfluous ques

ld perhaps be like one of the others since you were his pupil, too, but I cannot find which. You are not Heracles-because you have none of those great mus

s to find the Golden Fleece-it is a good omen. Would

and true-but the end of the stor

as a straight enough sort of a fellow and that it wa

his face. She saw the whimsical

a-that is where he was wrong," she said, "but ha

was a witch?" Mr.

s word. He did not give it because she was or was not a witch-but becaus

ord, even to a woman, then?" an

see the point at all it seems. It is not to whom it is you give your word-it

was frankly amused. "What may your age be? A thousa

miled; his gayety was infectious, "but I am not so very you

e duly impressed with this an

honor and expediency together, do you, as a recreati

d-and that they are never honorable to a woman when another woman comes upon the scene. But I do not know at all about such thing

world fell together like a pack of cards, and as if he saw truth shining n

f feeling. He did not speak for a minute; it was as if he had quaffed some elixir. A flame of noble fire

ight never let me forget this point of view. And you believe it would have won for

that?" she asked surprised. "Good o

, and at the thrilling sight Halcyone slipped her hand into her co

o the other side by the stream-and oh! there is the fawn

otted by, followed by a minute son in

ssly until they had entered the copse agai

ere are more. Oh! how I hope t

once; there was something soft and pleasa

the Long Man-and the fawns, and why there are only six

the deer themselves, and they chatted on about all sorts of animals and their ways, and John Derringham was entranced and felt quite aggrieved when she said it was getting late and she must go back to the house for her early dinner

gate, telling her about his own old home th

oak which she had brought from the tree, ha

aid. "And then, whenever I see it, I will try t

she did as he asked, an

s from beyond the bars. "I did not like the thought of your coming-and at first I did not

d have been-a flitting shape among the trees. And John Derring

m from his Chief had arrived, r

e Halcyone again