The Man and the Moment

seventh time, with a vicious intentness, and then jumping up from the

ticular word aloud with a fearful grind of the teeth,

Arrans

as you, my friend, who may happen to h

nsequences of one's follies at any age, but at twenty-four, when o

t, would be quite impossible to put on paper! It contained what almost amounted to curses for a certain

cross the room, he called his bulldog, put on his cap and stamped out on to the old stone balcony which opened from this apartment,

g-boots and a silk shirt over his arm. You could see through the open door that it was a very big and comfortable bedroom, which had evidently been adapted

en his father died ten years before, and his mother was left to spoi

on the entire property! While, from his mother, a number of solid golden sovereigns flowed into his coff

ng man had also inherited that common sense which made him fair

ughters and what not! They had seized anything they fancied, and were a strong, ruthless, brutal race, not much vitiated by civilization. These instincts of seizing what they wanted had gone on in them thr

sently. Alexander Armstrong was the old retainer, who now enjoyed the position of guide to the Castle upon the two days a week when tour

leman had left upon his bed while he went to his bath, so his servant knew the cause of his bad temper, and had been prudent and

very diffidently, peeped through the window from the balcony, an

s barbaric language; sufficient to tell you that he made the excuse for his intrusio

she's installed here as mistress!"

hat he did not know what Mr. Jo

wrote one of her mauve billy doos this morning, telling the master so, and suggesting they'd soon be able

ver been known to be coerced into any course of conduct which he did not desire himself-not being hampered by consideration for women, or by any consideration but his own wi

pring. See his strong arms and his height! See him smash the boughs off trees when they get

ant proofs of woman's infernal cunning in his own sphere of life, and Mrs

s he got up to go, the clock striking three. He knew the firs

d at the riding-b

rn to lunch, and just now I find every article of clothing strewn upon the floor-when he came in and took anothe

Fordyce, whose very presence in his house he had forgotten, so turbulent had his thoughts been ever since the early post ca

radually got back to Michael's sitt

ut had waited for the first indication of the cause. It came in the course of a conversation, after th

day," Henry said lazily, looking out upon

petulantly. "I can't enjoy anything lately. 'Pon my soul, it is worth going

om, when even here at Arranstoun he had b

wonder when you will be prime

ed himself in his c

u are tied and bound to a woman-and such a woman! You have not been able to call your soul your own since last October as i

be shot if I do!" he said, and sat down again. Then

enry. If poor old Maurice does puff o

e sleepy look in his gray eye

e whole circumstance of your affair with Violet Hatfield. I warned you about her in the begi

but checked himself-an

gged her wretched husband, dying of consumption as he is, to this merry party. Well-Rose says poor Maurice is in a terrible sta

rself this morning," and Micha

d with meaning. "Violet can pop in on you at any moment, and she'll c

, L

half a dozen others who occupied your proud position before your day-it is only for money and the glory of having you tied to her apron strings. It was not any good hammering on while the pass

little. "I say, Henry, I won't hear a word agai

rdyce

at poor Maurice's conditio

not exa

suggested all sorts of joy

an omino

hich his adversaries in the House of Commons so w

this moment, Violet is probably shedding tears on her shoulder over poor Maurice, while she is plotting how soon she can become mistress of Arranstoun. Good God! when I think of it-I would rather get in a girl from the village and go

as perfectly furious-furious with the situatio

anting there-and I am so sorry for the poor chap-Maurice, I mean-a

el's impatience increasing so that he ran his hands through his dark,

est a way out?"

oo much occupied with women, Michael-from your first scrape when

heard to s

our only way of escape. Such a waste of your life! Just analyze the position. You have everything in the world, this glorious place-an old name-money-prestige-and if your inclinations do run to the material side of things instead of the intellectual, they are still successful in their demonstration. No one has a better eye for a hor

day long! I would rather marry old Bessie at the South Lodge. She

e eyes-and he exclaimed with a kind of joy, as he se

n idea!-the very thing. She'd do it

and slobbere

nd that you dribbled on her dress! She would not tell your master that he left his cigarette-as

denly catching sight of the whimsical,

ly. "I had forgotten you were he

as finished you, eh?" Mr. Fordyce sugges

ed his face w

irly knocked over-it really is the last straw-but she will cry and make a scene-a

y to occupy yourself with more important things than women. Believe me, they are all very well in their way and in their proper place-to be treated with the greatest courtesy and respect as wives and mot

rranstoun

n! You think women h

cause it was rather true-

y, I see things at their pr

in his chair; he was

in her-when I want a horse, I must have it. It is always must-and we have not done so badly. We still possess our shoulders and ch

a shaft from the south mullioned window in the corner beyond the great fireplace, the space between occupied

roamed

to a figure. "He had just killed a Moreton and stolen his wife

rom his chair and

yze the last Arranstoun, and rule him for

hael pr

eaven

me, which looked into the courtyard on the opposite side to the balcony. "Goodness! what a party of tourists! It is a bore for

ass which compose the tourists of all countries, and which no nation feels

enerally quiet, and fortunately their perambulations close at the end of the galler

e room and went

all that," he laughed, a

himself into his great armchair again, and pulled the wrink

ntains, she would track us. If we stay and face it, she'll make an almighty

ows! His canine common sense may have telepathically transmitted a thought, for Michael suddenly plopped him on the floor, and stalked towar

ing fell forward with a crash, and through the aperture of a secret door whic