The Rose-Garden Husband

lly; merely wrapped in a web of the dragging, empty, gray half-thoughts of weariness in general that had hung about him so many years. Wallis was not there. Wallis had been with him much less late

n a new part of the house. He closed his eyes entirely, there in the dusk

y carrying voice rang

, and I feel as if I were going

ly open and slid in. She walked in a pussy-cat fashion which would h

the chair that should have been by it but wasn't, a

!" she

ans

Harri

leep, or what did instead, in

n Harr

and pulled at his heavy

rteously, as if from

-moved you-a little? I can tell you all about everything,

rom the depths of his gray cloud

thers. "Good-by, dear Crusader!" she said with a catch in her voice that might have be

right, Wallis," she said, and ran. Wallis proceeded

r," he said with the same amiable guilelessness, if the victim had but not

from his cloud. And Wallis procee

amiliar thing these seven years, a stand-up collar. A shiningly new linen

't need a collar and tie to keep me from getting cold on a journey a

and tucked a handkerchief into the appropriate pocket as he replied, "Grant & Moxley's, sir,

ittle irritable at the length and shutupness of the drive, though, as his cot had been swung deftly from the ceiling of the carriage, he was not jarred. But when Wallis and Arthur carried the light pallet on which he lay swiftly up a plank walk laid to the door of a private car-why then it began to occur to Allan Harrington that somethin

ven years surging up toward Wallis, and Arthur, and Phyllis, and the carriage-horses, and everything else, down to

r, that-that a little move would do you good

I did, when a change in my whole way of life is made! Who gave you, or Mrs. Harringt

Wallis meekly. "Would you care

hundere

d before he thought he had hurled it at Wallis! Weakly, it is true, for it lighted ingloriously about five feet away; but he had thrown

ou threw, and you haven't been able to use more than yo

his feat, and forgot to be angry for

Mr. Allan, it was beautiful! You haven't been more than to say snarly si

lad's healthy young hot-temperedness, had been weakened by long disuse, but he did fairly well. Secretly it was a pleasure

uenther mention," answered Wallis at once. "A little

aid Allan. "What the dickens has this g

" was all Wallis vouchsafed to this. The De Guenth

ung madam was planning to stay all the summer, he believed. Mrs. Clancy had been left behind to look after the other servants, and he understood that she had seen to the engagement of a fresh staff

ore trees to be seen in Allan's quick passage from the train to the long old carryall (whose seats had been removed to make room for his cot) than he had remembered existed. There were sleepy birds to be heard, too, talking about how near sunset and their bedtime had come, and a little brook splashed somewhere out of sight. Altogether spring was to be seen and heard a

ow old house. Phyllis evidently had learned that All

had been at home. Allan watched the details of his room with that vivid interest in little changes which only invalids can know. There was an old-fashioned landscape story paper on the walls, with very little repeat. Over it, but not where they interfered with tracing out the adventures of the paper people, were a good many pictures, quite incongruous, for they were of the Remington type men like, but pleasant to see nevertheless. The furniture was chintz-covered and gay. Th

iting for you in the living-room," he announced. "Th

n surprise. The truth was, he was still enough awake

ere were more cheerful pictures, the Maxfield Parrishes Phyllis had wanted, over the green-papered walls. There was a fire here also. The room had no more period than a girl's sentence, but there was a bright air of welcomeness and informality that was wi

ked very apprehensive and young and wistful for the r?le of Bold Bad Hypnotist. She bent towards him with he

Wallis must have given her a lurid account of how h

dn't bother me with plans this time!" he

t," said his wife shyl

kind staccato voice behind him. "Kiss your husba

y, a very handsome and attractive young fellow, a little her senior. From all appearances, he might have been well and normal, and come home to her only a little tired, perhaps, by the day's work or sport, as he lay smiling at her in that friendly, intimate way! It was terrifyingly different. Everything felt diffe

e whose first unconscious instinct is to obey an unspoken order. She bent blindly to Allan's lips,

o him, that swift childish kiss, and Phyllis's honey-colored, violet-scented hair

it, telling him all about it as if everything were as usual and pleasant as possible, and the presen