The Four Feathers

Swilly on the following fore-noon by a little cargo steamer, which once a week steamed up the Lennon River as far as R

ee me," said she, notin

thoughts of you;" and the smile changed upon her face

been packed into the cart; "I brought no groom on purpose.

about him, noting the dark thicket of tall trees which climbed on the far side of the river, the old grey bridge, the noise of the water above it as it sang over shallows, and

s. And in character she was the counterpart of her looks. She was honest; she had a certain simplicity, the straightforward simplicity of strength which comprises much gentleness and excludes violence. Of her courage there is a story still told in Ramelton, which Feversham could never remember without a thrill of wonder. She had stopped at a door on that steep hill leading down to the river, and the horse which she was driving took fright at the mere clatter of a pail and bolted. The reins were lying loose at the moment; they f

absent air, as though she had something of more importance in her thoughts. It was not until she had left the town

. There would have been chances of distinction. I have hindered you, and I am very sorry. Of course, you could not know that th

him for a moment. Then he said,

need

tance, supposing that you had gone to Egypt, and that the worst had happened, I should have felt very lonely, of course,

am caught his breath like a man in pain. But the girl's eyes were upon his face, and he sat still, staring in front of him without so much

en," she resumed. "One goes along in a dull sort of way, and then suddenly a face springs out from the crowd of one's acquaintances, and you know it at once and certainly for the face of a friend, or rather you recognise it, though you have never seen it

ade a mistake. Suppose the face in the crowd

k her head

stakes, and perhaps for a long while. But in th

ld upon the man and tortured him, so

t at that moment Ethne reined in her ho

ne walls enclosing open fields upon the left, and a wood of oaks and beeches on the right. A

re I used to post my letters to you during the anxious ti

the trees to the ri

s very convenient

ove on and stopped again wher

s a tree on the other side of the wall as convenient as the le

been thieves," e

gates she drove up to the porch of the long, irregular

country-side is com

e police to fetch them if they stayed away, just as he fetched your friend Mr. Du

he steps. His face softened, however, into friendliness when he saw Feversham, and a smile played upon hi

If you want any whiskey, stamp twice on the floor with your foot. The se

tterkenny, and forcing bed and board even upon strangers, as Durrance had once discovered. He was a man of another century, who looked out with a glowering, angry eye upon a topsy-turvy world, and would not be reconciled to it except after much alcohol. He was a sort of intoxicated Coriolanus, believing that the people should be shepherded with a stick, yet always mindful of his manners, even to the lowliest of women. It was said of him with pride by the townsfolk of Ramelton, that even at his worst, when

black under overarching boughs. There was a fall, where the water slid over rocks with a smoothness so unbroken that it looked solid except just at one point. There a spur stood sharply up, and the river broke back upon itself in an amber wave through which the sun shone. Opposite this spur they sat for a long while, talking at times, but for the most part listening to the roar of the water and watching its perpetua

om came the swaying lilt of the music and the beat of the dancers' feet. Ethne drew a breath of re

here are letters, one, two, th

little white jeweller's cardboard box,-and

be empty,

d unfastened the string. He looked at the address. The box had been for

nt in the air, and then, one after another, settled gently down upon the floor. They lay like flakes of snow upon the dark polished boards. But they were not whiter

re than perplexity. The smile upon her face and the loyal confidence in her eyes showe

which cannot be hid, I

the trees whispered from the garden through the open door. Then she shook his arm gently

e white feathers. They were sent to you in jest? Oh

sent in dea

aight in the eyes. Ethne drop

them?" s

had sent it so unimportant. But Ethne reached out her hand and took the box from him. Ther

stleton, Mr. Willoughby

officers of m

m would help her to comprehension. They lay upon the palm of her white glove, and she blew gently upon them, and they swam up into the

justly sent

id Harry

s known for a coward. The word which had long blazed upon the wall of his thoughts in letters of fire was now written large in the public places. He stood

could not look me in the face so steadily were i

it is

his afternoon we were under the elms down by the Lennon River-do you remember, Harry?-

is memories, the pathetic simplicity of her utterance, caught him by the heart. But Ethne seemed not to hear the appeal. She was listening with her face turned toward the ballroom. The chatter and laughter

," sh

room, and she closed the d

ell me, if you please, why t

g which she might have beyond a desire and a determination to get at the truth. She spoke, too, with the same

told me to tell Trench. I did not. I thought the matter over with the telegram in front of me. Castleton was leaving that night for Scotland, and he would go straight from Scotland to rejoin the regiment. He would not, therefore, see Trench for some weeks at the earliest, and by that time the

ont rather to look up to him, in all likelihood counted him a thing of scorn. But he heard Ethne speaking. After all, wh

his all?"

is enough

hould ever come between us? We were to be frank, and to take frankness each from the other without offence. So be frank with me! Please!"

feathers lay before his eyes upon the table. They could not be explained away; he wore "coward" like a blind man's label; besides, he could never make her understand. However, she wi

reath. He could see his father, that lonely iron man, sitting at this very moment in his mother's favourite seat upon the terrace, and looking over the moonlit fields toward the Sussex Downs; he could imagine him dreaming of honours and distinctions worthy of the Fevershams to be gained immed

araded. The mere anticipation of the suspense and the strain of those hours was a torture to me. I foresaw the possibility of cowardice. Then one evening, when my father had his old friends about him on one of his Crimean nights, two dreadful stories were told-one of an officer, the other of a surgeon, who had both shirked. I was now confronted with the fact of cowardice. I took those stories up to bed with me. They never left

" interrupted Ethne. "M

rrance never knew what the moments of waiting before the coverts were drawn meant to

ceal. However earnestly she might ask for frankness, he must at all cos

gracing me? Was I in any way

ed her in the

N

ed to me, you would still

es

a glove off her hand.

ollowed upon her words Feversham heard something whirr and rattle upon the table. He looked and saw tha

, with her face very stern, "you would have hidden from me? You wou

him in her thoughts. She had given him every chance. Now, however, she struck and laid bare the worst of his disloyalty. Feversham flinched, and he did not answer but allowed

thing. I stopped you to point out the letter-box," and she

atter, since the feathers had come, since her ring lay flickering and win

f such things again," and Feversham swayed upon his feet as though he would fall. "I remember, too, you said one could make

oroughly, as at this moment when he lost her. She gleamed in the quiet room, wonderful, most wonderful, from the bright flowers in her hair to the white slipper o

yours. Will you t

upon the table. Feversham obediently reached o

re four,

. It was a fan of ivory and white feathers. She had broken off o

red with humiliation and pain. All the details of Harry Feversham's courtship, the interchange of looks, the letters she had written and received, the words which had been spoken, tingled and smart

rprised her. All the time, too, he had kept his eyes steadily upon hers, he had answered her questions simply, there had been nothing abject in h

nly towards her, and kept his eyes upon her face for some little while. Then very carefully he put the feathers in

me your arm?" In the hall she looked at the clock. "Only eleven o'clock," she said weari

ng upon his arm, they p