Smith and the Pharaohs, and other Tales

nd-blown rooks wheeled on their homeward way. She noted a little yellow aconite that had opened its bloom prematurely in the shadow of the wall, and the sight of it brought her some

at day and in that place seemed to her a message a

her mother. But soon she thanked them gently and bade them leave her to herself. Then they brought her son to her, thinking that the sight of him would thaw her heart. For a while the

d I'm master here, and everyone w

n her fawn-like eyes, a mute reproach, pierced to the boy'

her loss more completely perhaps than anything had done. Her beloved husband was dead, of no more account in the world than those who had passed

ll to stay, and urged Barbara to put away past things and resign herself to

y. "As it is, you still look quite a girl, having kept your figure so well; you are comfortably off and have a good position, and in short there is no knowing what may happen in the future. You must come up and stay with m

later. But in the end she never went to London, at least not to stay, perhaps it reminded her too vividly of her life t

rtunes of her other pretty nieces, Barbara's sisters, two of whom, it should be said, already she had settled comfor

aid; "it is a comfort to ha

om these visits, since Lady Thompson spoilt him and let him have his way in everything. Also she gave him more money than a boy ought to have. As a result, or partly so

rhood. This girl, who was only about three years older than Anthony, was remarkable for her handsome appearance and vigour of body and mind. Her hair and large eyes were so dark that probably the local belief that she had gipsy or other foreign blood in her veins

e worst of his rages, having been forbidden by his mother to go to a coursing meeting which he wished to attend. In this state he shut himself up in the library, swearing that he would do

d," and without hesitation walked into

et out!" followed by a fearful crash, and trembl

said to herself, and rose, proposing

iest and most uproarious manner and of the housemaid Bess, laughing with him. She stayed where she was and listened. Bess had left the library and was coming acr

arly got me with that plaster thing, so I went for him and boxed his ears till he was dazed. Then I kissed him afterwards till he l

y, she is, and gentle like the squire who's gone.

a boy in the Fens they'd have told that the fairy folk changed

w handsome he looked with his massive head and square-jawed face, and how utterly unlike any Arnott or Walrond known to her

his pockets and a smile upon his face, for

y," she said,

t the coursing meeting; they are a low lot, and I oughtn't to mix with them. But I had bets

ery evident

at and the thing smashed against the wall. Then she came for me straight and gave me what I deserved, for she was too many for me.

thony? Well

, mother? Not from you, or my father fr

uld say it was from

then it is rather hard luck on me,

. You are to be confirmed

ill ever change me. When that wild-cat of a girl got the better of me just now, it

and or fall al

don't leave me alone, for if you do, then I am sure which I

he was quick and clever, and his great skill in athletics made him a favourite. Also his grandfa

be accurate, for just so long as th

But when he did break out, Bess Catton alone could deal with him. Naturally it would be thought that there was some mutual attraction between these young people. Yet this was not

not hate the sight, and in the end her behaviour caused such

ange. You may ring your own bull-calf now and I wish you jo

consider him a suitable member of a public school. He suggested, in the lad's own interest, that it might be wise to place him in some establishment where a speciality was made of the training of unruly youths. He added that he wrote this with the more regret since Anthony's

older than himself, and beaten him. But the matter did not end there, since after his adversary had given up the fight Anthony flew at

his mother's face; moreover, he was furious when he found that Bess Catton had been sent away and demanded her ret

n of spirit. Now in her misery the poor woman went to her room, and falling on her knees prayed with all her heart that she might die. The burden laid upon her was more

creened him from trouble so far as might be. But this part

nearly always recoil upon our heads, whereas if they are faced, often they melt away. If you remain in the world to watch and help him, your son's nature, bad as it seems to be, may yet

d to act up to them. But as it happened Mr. Walrond did not live long, for

ected. Perhaps she had contracted the disease from her husband, and now that she was so broken in spirit, it asserted itself. They added, however,

mately for the Army. Needless to say, she was employed continually in trying to compose the differences between him and this tutor. How then could she go

t associations were in the churchyard yonder, the churchyard where she hoped ere long

emembered that dream of his about a home that awaited him in another world, and she

it would come and rest its head upon her as she slept, and she would wake to find it looking at her with a question in its eyes. One night in the darkness it did this, then left her and bro

bed that had been Anthony's, and though she wept over it, her tears were perhaps

did it return with empty hands. Something of Anthony had greeted it, though she could not remember the greeting, had

in the opening was Anthony talking with one whom she knew for their daughter, the baby that had died, talking of her. I

turned to crowns of thorn and joy was but an inch rule by which to measure the alps of human pain. Life was a door, a gateway. The door dreadful, the gate p

as rapid. When she began

?" asked her son of

answered. "Moreover, it is imposs

o die?" blurted Anth

ion than I am," replied the doctor, who knew of Anthony's cruel conduct to h

ve killed her," sai

sease I cannot be sure. All I said was that she appears to welcome it, or rather its issue. And I will add this on my ow

's why she won't go on living when she might. She is committing suicide-of a holy sort. Well, what made me a brute and her an angel? And when she's gone how will the brute get on without the angel? Why should I be filled

s it were, she saw the face of her aged mother, the faces of some of her dear siste

God's sake come back to me, mother, or we s

last words that