Seven Miles to Arden

humor; and, as laughing alone is sorry business, the man soon sobered

are, it's the duke'

re unmistakably the tinker's. But there was nothing familiar about face, figure, or expressio

name is Patricia O'Connell"-her voice was crisp and tart; "it's the Irish for a sh

ly, "and very much at your service."

faced him, flushed, determined, and very dignified. It is to be doubted if Patsy could have sustained the latter with any degree of conviction if she could have seen herself. Straying strands of still damp hair curled bewitchingly about her face, bringing out the roundness of cheek and chin and the curious, guileless expression of her ey

altogether too flustered to diagnose his expression, but it added considerably to the temperature of the O'Connell temper. In vie

e an explanation. Would you mind telling me how you happened to be hangin

se I was a tink

at are y

other people's broken pots, and little else; knowing more about birds than

? Isn't it only decent to tell who you are and w

its. And don't you think it would be nicer if you talked Irish? It doesn't make a lad fe

what you are, I would ever have been so-so brazen as to ask for your company and tramp along with y

longer; it wouldn't have been kind to the furniture or the people who own it. These togs were the only things that came anywhere near to fitting me; and, somehow, a three-days' beard didn't match

r tongue fairly dripped with irony. "So ye thought ye'd have a morsel o' fun at the

man from whom I borrowed the rags. I paid him a tidy sum for the use of them, and evidently he thought it was a shame to leave m

t much

ew dollars, hardly w

re-half-wi

ched the church at the cross-roads-that I really came into full

s I played the fool."

e wander with you-you just said so. I knew that, and I was selfish, lonely-and I didn't want to give you up. You can't blame me. When a man meets with genuine comradeship for the first time in

I'm wondering which of us will be finding it the pleasantest." She flashed a look of unutterable scorn upon him

nker c

ught so. Ye

you see-" he flo

o mend a lie; 'tis poor bu

as it such a heinous sin, after all, to

it entirely. 'Twas amusement, ye meant; the fun of trading on a girl's ignorance and simple-heartedness;

ou th

o the road in rags-or ye did it for copy; ye're not the first man who has done the like for the sake of a new idea fo

y can put them anywhere-in any company-without taking one whit from their fineness or leaving one atom of smirch. Do you think I would have brought you here and ri

prehension was

t that wasn't your way. 'Twas a grand scheme ye had-whatever it might be; and ye fetch me away afore the town is up and I can ask the road of any one; and ye coax me across pastures and woods, a far cry fro

nker whistled

king after a lad? Sure, I'm hating myself for not minding his need better; and, Ho

se-please wait a minute," he pleaded. "If there's another-lad, a lad you-love, that I have kept you from-th

unmistakably wet. "What does it matter to ye if he's the lad I love

don't believe the other lad will grudge me these few hours, ev

your wits on; what he's needing is a father-and mother-

newel-post and smiled. "And do you e

tsy laughed in s

can have-the gift of honest, unconditional friendship, asking no questions, demanding no returns? It is a rare gift for any man-and I want

eyes; her lips were beginning to curve in the old, whimsical smile. And the tinker, seeing,

ing the scales in his favor. "I'm no end of a good forager, and I've rooted out lots of things in tins and j

h ye again-never-never-never! Ye've blighted the greenest memory I ever had!" And

hadows and haunting memories. For a long time he stood, brutally kicking one of the fire-dogs and snapping his fingers at his feelings; and then, being a

irs with it in rather a lagging fashion, being wholly at sea concerning the temperature of his recepti

n that he called out, bravely, "Oh-I say-Miss-O'Conne

voice sounded broken and wistful as a crying child's. "Thank-you!" and

iles;" and the tinker lau

the tray was precipitated down the stairs upon him. I

cut a bedraggled brown coat and skirt and hat into strips and burn them, bit by bit. It was not altogether a pleasant ceremony-the smell of burning

ong way to go now if he's still looking

e as serene as the patches of June sky framed by her windows,

ast; but I'll be letting him tramp the road to Arden with me, and we'll part there

construction: The tinker should turn out a wandering genius, for in her heart she could not believe the accusations she had hurled against him the night past; when they reached Arden they would come upon the younger Burgeman, contemplating immediate suicide; this would give her her cue, and she would administer trust and a

as and square Billy with him, or-the curtain might drop leaving her right center, wishing both lads "God-speed." Neither ending was entirel

tly in her playmaking to listen for some sounds of h

ngs down the stairs after him; or, most likely, the O'Connell temp

irs humming, "Blow, blow, thou winte

on hand, waiting her entrance. But tinker there was none; nothing but

e-several times. But there came no answering sound save the quick

lone in t

an she did; moreover, it was an easier task to face the inevitable when it took the form of blind, impersonal disaster. When it was a matter of deliberate, intentional human motives-it became well-nigh unbearable. Had the tinker gone to be rid of her company and her temper? Had he decided that the road

o road and no quest and no Rich Man's son and no tinker, and no anything. Maybe-I'll be wakin

e first object they fell on was a photograph in a carved wooden frame on the mantel-shelf in the room across the hall. It was plainly visible

e name of devils-or saints-did he ever get this taken, developed, printed, an

ure of the tinker, in white flannels