No Hero

to pluck with this gentleman, who owed to my timely intervention a far greater immunity than he deserved. It was in the little billiard-room I found him, pachydermatously appl

ity which might have caused me some compunction,

my feeling in the matter was not so strong as Bob's, but with a certain contemptuous i

the general chit-chat, punctuated by the constant clicking of the heavy balls, there w

said he, "if you mean a

I heard; but who s

o starts anything in a place like thi

I really rather want to talk to you

then. I am

s and I are ra

can

It may be perfectly true, as you say, but who found i

had suddenly become accentu

I who first heard of it, quite by chance

ot," said I

it out; and you know how th

agreed. "But how on eart

Hamilton the sapper, who had telegraphed to Quinby to secure me my room. I ought to have been disarmed by the coincidence; but I

rise I might have felt, "that our friend wrote and

easy cannon, leaving his opponent a still easier one, which lost him the game. I proceeded to

must have written to a

ggressive specimen of the nasal snigger of which enough was mad

lry? I shall ask Sir John Sankey whether it is his," I added, as the judge joined us with genial condescension, and I recollected that his proverbial harshness toward the male offender was redeemed by an extraordinary sympathy with the women. Ther

dal, and for my part I always like to see a humbug catch it hot. But if the scandal's about a woman, and if it's an old s

part, was not afraid to take the responsibility for anything he might have said. It was perfectly true, to begin with. The so-called Mrs. Lascelles, who was such a friend of mine, had been the wife of a German Jew in Lahore, who had divorced her on her elopement with a Major L

said I; "but as a matter of fact you are giving currency to two. In the first place, this lady

nby, with a touch of genuine surpri

is. I knew Mrs. Lascelles herself quite well out there; I knew the other side of her case. It doesn't seem to have struck you, Quinby, that such a woman

ut Quinby was of another opinion, which he expressed with his o

securing a room for a man

it. I happen to have saved you no less than a severe thrashing from a stronger man than myself, who

comment, when the mischief-maker had departed without returning my

had to tell him the truth

ge raised h

egards the lady. But I am not so sure that it was altogether fair toward the lad. It is one thing to stand u

osite side. Was it so utterly impossible for a woman with this woman's record to make a good wife to some man yet? I did not admit it for an instant; he would be a lucky man who won so healthy and so good a heart; thus I argued to myself with Mrs. Lascelles in my mind, and nobody else. But Bob Evers was not a man,

nd prove the rule; my brief was for Bob, and there was an end of it. It was foolish to worry, especially on such a night. The moon had waxed since my arrival, and now hung almost round and altogether dazzling in the little sky the mountains left us. Yet I had the terrace all to myself; the magnificent voice of our latest celebrity h

deeds my l

I'll moun

is arm, and

s frae me

thy colour

ure at m

bends not

it to hi

s did not drown the words as they often will, but all came clean to the ear. No wonder the hotel held its breath! I was standing entranced myself, an outpost of the audience underneath the win

he whispered excit

b, and there was his greased face beaming in the moonlight, and the bl

e Matt

time of

uides waiting for me just below by the shoemaker's hut. I told you I was on their tracks. Well, it was to-night or never

into another verse, and now I knew it better. It was Catherine who had introduced me

ink, "that everybody went up to the Cabane overni

pping moonlight walk instead of a so-called night's rest in a frowsy hut. We shall get our breakfast there instead, and I expect to start fresher than if I had slept there and been

nt and yet irresolute pause, as though he could not quit

d she hasn't said no, but I am giving her till to-morrow night. That's all, Clephane. I thought it a fair thing to let you know. If you want to waltz in and try your luck while I'm g

a little stick toward the lighted windo

to the last and clearest

e how to woo

e how to

sake, nae c

r another

course I'm going to take care of myself, and of course I meant to rush the Matterhor

ect of their own motives and emotions, for they are the soonest deceived, not only by others but in themselves. Or so I venture to think, and even then reflected, as I shook my dear lad's hand by the side parapet of the moonlit terrace, and watched him run down into the shadows of the fir-trees and so out of my sight with two dark and stalwart figures that promptly detached themsel

o guides?" is what I

ell, mo

ey good

y best,