Helena

rom his allotment. Thanks to summertime and shortened hours of labour he had been able to get his winter gr

of the eighteenth century the Lord Buntingford of the day had planted a wood of oak and beech about the small lake which he had made by the diversion of two streamlets that had once found a sluggish course through the grassland. The trees in it were among the finest in the country, but lik

gh the trees and round the edge of the lake had once been frequently used as a short cut from the village to the house, but

corner of the wood and reached the fork of the path, to see a figure of a woman, o

ed to know what a stranger could be doing in the park, and on that path at ten o'clock at night. He was aware indeed that there were gay doings at Beechmark. He had seen the illuminated garden and hou

d. She paused a moment, and then made an abrupt change of direction; running round the corner o

course a stranger who had lost her way across the park, mistaking the two paths. On seeing him, she had realized that she was wrong and had quickly s

completely out of sight, leaving the wide stretches of the park empty and untenanted under a sky already alive with st

r to another, as the two Generals stood against the wa

essed. "The brigade was licking

ther

ntières. We didn't think then, did we, t

d and sharply cut face, still young under a shock of grey hair.

t!" The soldier's eyes ran smiling over th

ste

parted from a girl a good deal older than himself, who had nodded to him a rather p

er dusty, aren't they?" said

ime now!" said the little creature beside him, a fairy in filmy white, dancing about him as

stateliness and grace to some Czech music, imposed upon the band by Helena, who had given her particular friends instruction on the lawn that afternoon in some of the steps that fitted it. They passed with the admiring or envious eyes of the room upon

ughter of Lady Mary Chance, a rather pretty but stupid girl, with a genius for social

" said his partner contemptuously, as Helena

eter violently, turning upon her.

hed in surpri

great friends. I only repeat

d Peter. "There isn't a man in this ba

?" said the girl, with a t

well as other people!"

lackening to the close of the dance, and a crowd of aspirants for supper dance

back!" he said to his

per dance!"

ur proceeded to make himself delightful even to Mis

ted just to remember Helena's smile, her eager-"I've kept it for you, Peter, all the evening!"-and to hug the thought of his coming joy

o chequer the path with light and shade, he ran into Julian H

ou doing here?" sa

cool. A

tion, a Bolshevist pamphlet, then enjoyi

ng such rot for?" s

lights, on its rising ground above the lake, the dancing groups on the lawn, the illuminated rose-garden; and below, the lake, under its screen of wood, with boats on the smooth water, touched eve

me," said Peter reck

ingf

was going down to look after the lake and the boats-in case of accidents. There is a current at one end a

ford's going to marry

sudd

ot my guess, at present,

in it were clearly visible-Buntingford rowing, and Helena, in the stern. The vision passed

ubled, he scarcely knew

es, his rugged head, and pile of reddish hair, above a thinker's brow, made hi

f guardian and ward?-romantic situations, I mean? Of course the note of r

t the change in the boy's delica

lian! In the first place i

hy

honourable! And in the next, why,

le aversion'! One of the st

n to you talking bosh any more," said Peter

too sorry a figure. Besides, could she ever have married him-which was of course impossible, in spite of the courses in Meredith and Modern Literature through which he had taken her-she would have tired of him in a year, by which time both their fortunes would have been spent. For he knew himself to be a spendthrift on a s

that Lady Georgina had been taken suddenly ill, and must go home. She understood that Mawson was looking after her sister, who was liable to slight fainting attacks at inconvenient moments. But how to find their ca

d to the lake. As she neared the little landing stage, a boat appr

what have you do

e were just comin

take you on till

ake Buntingford was seized with belated compunction that he had not done his host's duty to hi

s it often. She can't want more than Lady Cynthia-an

im, trailing both hands in the water, that Buntingford su

o see me the other d

wanted you to

o! We were simply born

g so unreasonable!" sa

od creature, and can

gave

intuitions. No!-don't let's talk any more about Lady Cynthia. But-there's

as he saw her in the shadow they had just enter

I hope noth

to me. I hate apolog

ould you apologize? For

better

out that man, Jim Donald, and I was quite wrong. He's a beast, and I loathe t

, and could not for the moment fi

At the same moment, the searchlight which had been travelling about the pond, lighting up one boat after another to the amusement of the persons in them, and of those watching fro

be giving away. She wanted to say-"Don't misunderstand me!-I'm not really giving up anything vital-I mean all the same to manage my life in my own way." But it was difficult to say it in the face of the coatless man opposite, of whose house she had become practically mistress, and who had changed all his personal modes of life to suit hers. Her eyes wandered to the gay scene

normously-it's awfully, awfully good of y

at, He

thout any more week-ends, o

you're right"-his tone grew suddenly grave. "While we dance,

n-after

dying-half a dozen bloody little wars. And here

do-women, I mean? They told me at the hospital yesterday they get rid of their last convalescents next week. What is there for me

nd bring up children," s

f duty of Englis

rees, of which the lower branches were almost in the water. Behind them, and to the side of them, through a gap in the wood, the moonlight found i

trees mark some dwelling-house, which has disappeared. They used to be my chief haunt when I was a boy. There are four of them, extraordinarily interwove

Helena. "Shall we land?-

a shout rang out from the landing-s

ngford. "And I must really get ba

ena sat silent. She did not want Geoffrey-she did not want to rea

*

na, she had gone home, and then stepping into the bo

a hesitating voice, half rising from her

urned to l

to supper yet. Sha

would rather have landed was very evident to her companion, who had been balked of half his chance already by Lady Georgina. W

to tell her of his own adventure on the lake-of the dumb woman among the trees, whom he had seen and spoken to, without reply. Helena was only moderately interested. It was some v

reserving again yet

erday that there were

there'll be somethin

tired,

talking about?-oh, pheasants. Do you think we really shall

ch care!" s

bent

seem to have danced for hours." The tone was childishly plaintive, and French was

Why should you go back just

d absently-"but I

ght. We'll just go

the dancers. A little northwest wind was creeping over the lake, and stirring the scents of the gr

that black pa

host-or village woman-or lady's m

edly. "They have a way of getting lost. Do you min

at towards the yews; while she repea

nd her there," said

r creepy! To think we had a spy on u

alone there under the darkness of the yews. If a listener had been lurking in that old hiding-place, w

a willow-stump, and

ghing. "You'll tear your d

e was already halfway through the branches, and

a wonderf

ey stood in a kind of natural hall, like that "pillared shade" u

whose sa

if for festal

ing berries,

n-tide; Fear an

oresight; Dea

e the S

bers" of the yews, was dry and smooth; Helena's light slippers scarcely sank in it. They groped their way; and Helena's hand had slipped unconsciously into Geoffrey's. In the velvety darkness,

him seated dryad-like in the very centre of the black interwoven trunks. Or, rather, he saw the sparkle of some bright stones on her ne

her, in an ecs

ream: Don't fade away! I wish

hed him. "But come here, Geoffrey-come up beside me-look!

branches, which no one could have noticed from outside, the little creek, wit

f the Somme returning upon him; so far as he was able to think of anything b

tion from Hele

s something he

ear his. She with

omething. Let's take it to th

lood racing through his veins. But he must needs help her

e soft thing she

ag. And there's something in

Their two heads stooped together over the bag. Hel

handkerchief!" she said, wonde

in the corner of the handkerchief. The match went out, and Helena put the handkerchief back

but it cost a great deal when it was new. What a strange, strange thing! We

e was begging him to take her back quickly to the house, Geoffrey was only conscious of disappointment and chagrin. What did the silly