In the Tideway

ou it wouldn't when we hid behind Charity. Is there anything really the matte

inseparable from tea in the drawing-room when bad weather keeps even the sportsmen indoors. He said the tru

thering, was detained there ten days by storm. Finally, just as she started for the Highlands one at Inverness pour passer le temps, it cleared up. Since then it has been what is called unsettled; most of all for poor Eustace, who never knows for two days together what is going to happen. The

e of evils,

thing but go over to Eval House to see Miss Macdonald--you knew her once, I think--well, he looks on her as an encyclop?dia of discredited

hotly, "she did not need any adventitious

uid hands met in

vais quart d'heure. I am not really laughing, so d

e speak

o have loved them in the same tone of voice they use

ld's voice must ch

t it? you we

circumstances favoured absence, so forgetfulness came, or at least indifference, absolute

e fan with which she scree

h this morning, and was to stop there for the night. Thought

made us drift from the point. You

hey get all their work done for them by the natives. It is an immense rel

eople's love-affairs? And what, for instance, of that handsome boy downstair

u remember once, when you were very angry with me, saying I was enough to rui

and failed?" he

t half-smiling, half-tearful

the image on the mantelshelf. "He carved that devil up there," she went on with the smile gaining on the tears. "The professor said it was a savage conception of fate,

he replied, looking at his watch

he Eval ferryboat." She l

ige you, Lady Maud. I might meet the professor,

your being here a week at least, and people c

ents are too strong for you

ll smiling over the joke, t

you might not come before I

khart a little way. He has

l Lockhart's. "Our ferry is far the shortest; in fact, it's the only road, for the u

eyebrows wen

ements are at times; ar

't we, Lady Maud?--without catching a fine day and a suitable tide on the hop together. The sea ford might have done last s

Captain Weeks was blissfully useful over a skein of wool. "And plea

go too," murmu

d the young lady tartly. Theoretically, she felt bound to despise her a

tream, I'm told, though I know nothing myself about these scientific things. Bu

hen is

they think it worth while to teach girls. It's the 10th of December for grouse, but partridges go on till the beginning of February, a

nd the last idea is that I am to take the yacht, which she is sending here, round to Cowes,

But all my friends are flyi

said Rick ruefully. "I'm booked for

e across one," she replied, smiling up into his eager boy

jolly shells too; all the

ick; I like p

pleasure at he

g to Will Lockhart. "I hope the el

for

seemed, however, as if Lady Maud's wish was not to be fulfilled; for as Rick Halmar and his companion set off acr

ck against the wind. "You had better stay at our pla

y calm any moment, and the yac

nd against tide in the middle of the narrow stream. Comparative calm reigned to one side in the inland loch, and to the other in the open sea; but here the waves leapt at each other in pyramids, sending jets of spray upwards with the very force of their meeting. A good thrower could e

ph rankled; perhaps, when all was said and done, he was not quite indifferent to that possible future with the professor. But he did hesitate for a moment. That early love-affair had strangely enough been his first and last: not because it was in itself absorbing, but because other things more absorbing than Love had step

to say nothing of smoothing her hair and washing her hands, before putting in an appearance; the which is a great support to most women in the crises of life. As a matter of fact, however, Miss Willina had never regarded this episode of her earliest years of conquest as one of supreme importance; perhaps some slight inkling that it really did mean more than she was prepared to admit was at the bottom of her deliberate want of romance on the subject. She had had many admirers, had them still for that matter; she was perfectly aware, for instance, of the professor's interest; but, for all that, she had n

old times to hear her order him up with Rick, to "change his feet," and see the swift touch with which she rescued an antimacassar

listener, about that past time. What had kept them separate except their own free will? Nothing! and yet had either of them deliberately anticipated this ending when they quarrelled over the bread and butter? And now she was thinking of the professor, or at any rate

't surely be

ounger, and Will Lockhart felt

n the window-knob. "There he is on the other side of the stream. He has hoisted the flag, and is blowing away at the whistl

! I am surprised at your levity. The poor man will be drenched to the skin, and h

g for the impossible gave him a thrill of satisfaction; for he, at least, was on the right si

n. A fool for his pains! Ah! what's the use of blowing like a hooter with the wind and tide aga

or, seeing them, doubtless, against the firel

e could walk back to shelter. And I'll stop in the boat-house; it will comfort him to see me smoking, especially if he has forgotten hi

igure on its way to the boat-house blocked out the professor's increasing des

twenty-one, and

out faintly against the growing darkness, but on their faces the dull

little nea

relled about. That was never very difficult to find, was it? But why did we quarr

etorted quickly. "Do you wish to begin it a

in w

rrel, of

ick, and acknowledged his defeat. Good man! Don't you think, Miss Macdonal

That is what you mean. How selfish all you men ar

u know, I rather wish you would just cast your eye over my innermost t

he needles clashed fast and furious. He was leaning towards her, his elbows on his knees, his hands loosely clasped together

to ask, but are you going to ma

f-gratified. "That is what you call beating about th

. "Why did we quarrel?" he repeated. "If the Clansman hadn't come in unexpectedly that evening after her time, and so given me

he inevitable satisfaction of being remembered to give an extra tinge of regret and romance to that past, which in sobe

wrong initial on the envelope, or a false announcement of marriage. Something not to be foreseen or helped. Or if it isn't the fault of fate, they

aid in the same argumentativ

solutely?" Her voice trembled slightly. The p

y--you and I leading

should see my

. I suppose it is absurd

their shadows on the wall are alive. But they are shadows; nothing but shadows, and the light which throws them--

dly, still holding her hand; "but it s

etty as th

is t

d forgiven each othe

r in the front hall dripping like a drowned rat. I got the men and ferri

to bed--between the blankets. I'll come directly with gruel and mustard. And, Ri

airs as she went into the hall to see Wil

future," he said with smiling eyes, but with vague regrets still at his heart. "I'm

lity?" she a

wind. "It is like the breath of your sea. The memory of it will

mmer is

pell of fine weather late in the year wh

ook he