The Half-Hearted

se nervously to prepare for exit. To Alice Wishart the country was a novel one, and the prospect before her an unexplored realm of guesses. The daught

elder woman had taken a strong liking to the quiet, abstracted child. Then came an invitation to Glenavelin, accepted gladly yet with much fear and searching of heart. Now, as she looked out on the shining mountain land, she was full of delight that she was about to dwell in the heart

r. She was very plainly dressed, and as she darted forward to greet the girl with entire frankness and kindness, Alice forgot her fears and kissed her hearti

aren't you? And of course the place is very pretty. There is tennis and golf and fishing; but perhaps you don't like these things? We are not very well off for ne

e's face, and whenever the object of the study raised her eyes she found a pair of steady blue ones beami

into the recesses of woods. At a narrow glen bridged by the road and bright with the spray of cascades and the fresh gr

Lewie's permission." An

e girl, anticipating som

lives at Etterick, up

ewie, Miss Wishart. I'm sure you would like him. He is a great traveller,

You mean the book about Kashmir. But

y be decrepit by this time. He is coming home soon, he says, but he never writes. I

bed and the hour for rising were more regular than the sun's. Her father was full of proverbs on the virtue of regularity, and was wont to attribute every vice and misfortune to i

onderful stories about your learning. Then I hope you will talk to Mr. Stocks, for I am afraid he is shocked a

nowledge I was not in a position to give an answer commensurate with the gravity

Stocks. He is very clever, and very much in earnest over everything. I don't wonder

"and I am very useless. I never did any work of any

woman of business, and then I take up half a dozen things till Jack has to interfere to prevent financial ruin. I dabble in politics and I dabble in philanthropy; I write review a

to revere, and to hear them light-heartedly disavowed seemed an upturning of the foundation of things.

Glenavelin. Here the grass was lusher, the trees antique oaks and beeches, and grey walls showed the boundary of an old pleasure-ground. Here in the soft sunlit afternoon sleep hung like a cloud, and the peace of centuries dwelt in the long avenues and golden pastures. Another turning and the house came in sight, at first glance a jumble of grey towers and ivied walls. Wings had been built to the original square keep, and even now it was not large, a mere moorland dwelling. But the w

she cried. "Oh, what

ssed half a dozen houses up and down the land, patted her gue

et this evening, and had spent many minutes before the glass. Looking at herself carefully, a growing conviction began to be confirmed-that she was really rather pretty. She had reddish-brown hair and-a rare conjunction-dark eyes and eyebrows and a delicate colour. As a small girl she had lamented bitterly the fate that had not given her the orthodox beauty of the dark or fair maiden, an

o further dread of the great ones of the earth. There were four other men, two of them mild, spectacled people, who had the air of students and a precise affected mode of talk, and one a boy cousin of whom no one took the slightest notice. The fourth was a striking figure, a man of about forty in appearance, tall and a little stout, with a rugged face which in some way suggested a picture of a prehistoric animal in an old natural history she had owned. The high cheek-bones, lar

ay of bowing over his hand which slightly repelled the girl, who had no taste for elaborate manners. His fi

id not know. Her grandfathers

iling unconcern of one to whom

I have the honour to belong. He represents one great section of our retainers, our host another. I am

ber the monosyllable which had stood for his name. She did not like his voice, and, great man or not, she resented the obvious

only too ready to talk. He proceeded to explain, compendiously, his doings of the past week, to which the girl listened politely.

one of confidence, and was going on to sketch the charac

me to fish some

and he babbled on happily till he saw that Miss Wishart had ceased to listen. It was the first ti

k. She had never heard of him, but then she was not well versed in the minutiae of things political, and he clearly was

residence of his friend the Duke of Sanctamund. W

e found him well-informed, clever, and dogmatic. The culminating point was reached w

d her with a l

d a book

bout such things? A wandering dilettante, the worst type of the pseudo-culture of

a low voice, but Lord Ma

nd then to the table at large, "do you kn

he coming over? I shall drive to Etterick to-morrow. No

y write?" And the young Arthur indulged in sundry exclamations,

s. "I was talking about a very different person-Lewi

same man. He is my nephew, Lewie Haystoun. He lives at Etterick, four m

le of triumph, but she was forbearing and for the rest of dinner exerted herself to appea

the rebuke with proper meekness. The spectacled people were talking earnestly with his wife. Arthur was absorbed in his dinner and furtive glances at his left-hand neighbour. There remained Bertha Afflint, whom he had hitherto admired with fear. To talk with her was exhausting to frail mortality, and he had avoided the pleasure except in moments of boisterous bodily and mental health. Now she was

orwater, who reserved her correspondence for the late hours, seized upon the girl and carried her off to sit by the great French windows from which lawn and park slope

ich her hostess looked pleased. "He is very clever, you know,"

ed his oc

e a Churchman. Some old man took a liking to him and left him his money, and that was the condition. So I believe he is pretty well off now and is waiting for a seat. He has been nursing this constituency,

Mr. Stocks, and allowed, some degree of respect for him to find place in her heart

ersation became general. Lord Manorwater made his way to Alice, thereby defeating Mr. Stocks, who tended in the same direction. "Come ou

along by the stream-side stood stately lines of yellow iris above the white water-ranunculus. The girl was sensitive to moods of season and weather, and she had almost laughed at the incongruity of the two of them in modern clothes in this fit setting for an

the bargain. And in a month or so there will be the election and I shall have to go and rave-there is no other word for it, Miss Wishart-rave on behalf of some fool or other, and talk Radicalism which would mak

lice. "After all, these things are the most important, for

eproof comes better from you. Dear me! it's a sad thing that a middle-aged legislator should be rep

e open drawing-room window. As they approached they caught an echo of a loud, bland voice say

Wishart felt that the use of loud and solemn words could jar upon her fe

al, untidy creature, with odd shreds of cleverness and a heart of gold. She liked the boy Arthur, and the spectacled people seemed harmless. Bertha she was prepared to adore, for behind the languor and wit she saw a very kindly and capable young woman fashioned after her own heart. But of all she liked Lord Manorwater best. She knew that he had a gre