In Friendship's Guise

parapets. Madge was very quiet for a time, and it was evident that she felt some misgivings as to the propriety of what she had consented to do at Jack's urgent request. She

e. This faithful creature, on the death of her young husband twenty years before, had entered Mrs. Foster's service; s

cked him a little. However, it was not his fault, he told himself. Stephen Foster had no business to be churlish and ungrateful, and treat his daughter as though she were

's face, and saw her quick blush. She laughed m

ot sorry?"

u, Jack, and the weather is perfect

d Teddington, under the shade of the great trees, enjoying the occasional views o

mpton Court with father on Sundays, but that was long ago; he doesn

lied indignantly, "when y

Strand-on-the-Green.

er long for

st be delightful to see the places and countries one

e Continent," said Jack. "We

e-long perspective of the chestnut avenue, bounded by the white sunlit walls of the hospitable Greyhound. The girl's eyes spark

t often, if you wil

ks in the palace yard, and the clear notes of a bugle rose from quarters; a tide of people and vehicles was flowing in the sunlight ov

n the bow-window, looking out on the quaint high-street. It was a charming repast, and both were hungry enough to do it justice. The Cham

or more up the rippling Thames, chatting gaily with Madge, who sat opposite to him and deftly managed the rudder-ropes. A little-known backwater was the goal, and su

asked, as he ran the bow gentl

and. It is too bea

golden hair that had strayed from under her hat; she took of

. "Why don't you smoke? You have my per

it again. The next instant he was beside

. "Don't you know-can't you g

story, the story that was born when the world began, fell from his lips. T

not care more for you had we been acquainted for months or years. I am not an impulsive boy-I know my own heart. I loved you from the

ed in her eyes, but there was also a radiant look there which tri

weet Madge!"

his arm tightene

u really, re

an you doubt me? Have you nothing

r. Don't think me unwomanly, Jack, for telling th

est man alive! God grant that I be

kiss on her lips. Side by side they sat there in the leafy retreat, heedless of time, while the afternoon sun drooped lower in the sky. They ha

pretty pout. "I was going to devote my life to art

swered, laughingly. "But you shall continue to paint, d

zed! I knew your work, Jack, before I knew you. But I am so

I love you the better because you are as fresh and pure as a flower, untainted by the wicked world, where innocence

Jack, promise me that you will never repent of your barga

k's face, and he was

ne. I was an art student in Paris for years, and Paris is a city of dissipation, full of pitfalls and tempta

st, and I will never ask you about it. You are mine now, and we will think only of the present and the

keep silence. What could he gain by dragging up the black skeleton of the past? He was a free man now, and the withholding of that bitter chapter of

e looking awf

, Madge, when will you be my wife? And ho

really-you must wait a whil

this dec

been quite himself lately-I t

sked, jealously. "Is there anything of the sort bet

so, though father has never spoken to me about it.

atten

hed. Won't you trust me and believe me? I love you with all my

foolish. I know that nothing can separate us, and I will await your own t

t him with a soft light in her eyes. "If I find him in a goo

, and then glan

said, regretfully

e trap ready. The world looked different, somehow, to the happy couple, as they drove L

noisy, a coach with half a dozen young men on top was encountered, evidently bound for a convivial dinner at the Star and Garter or the Roebuck.

remarked Jack, as the trap passe

Madge said, abruptly.

to get a train to Gunnersbury within a few minutes. She sprang lightly to the pavement, and let her hand rest in Jack's for a mom

Kew and Chiswick. "I have won a pearl among women.