"Nobly spoken, Mr. Glenarm! Yours is really an

admirable, though somewhat complex character."

"My character is my own, whatever it is," I blurted.

"I shouldn't call that a debatable proposition," she

replied, and I was angry to find how the mirth I had

loved in her could suddenly become so hateful. She

half-turned away so that I might not see her face. The

thought that she should countenance Pickering in any

way tore me with jealous rage.

"Mr. Glenarm, you are what I have heard called a

Advertisement..

quitter, defined in common Americanese as one who

quits! Your blustering here this afternoon can hardly

conceal the fact of your failure,-your inability to keep

a promise. I had hoped you would really be of some

help to Sister Theresa; you quite deceived her,-she

told me as she left to-day that she thought well of you,

-she really felt that her fortunes were safe in your

hands. But, of course, that is all a matter of past history

now."

Her tone, changing from cold indifference to the

most severe disdain, stung me into self-pity for my stupidity

in having sought her. My anger was not against

her, but against Pickering, who had, I persuaded myself,

always blocked my path. She went on.

"You really amuse me exceedingly. Mr. Pickering

is decidedly more than a match for you, Mr. Glenarm,

-even in humor."

She left me so quickly, so softly, that I stood staring

like a fool at the spot where she had been, and then I

went gloomily back to Glenarm House, angry, ashamed

and crestfallen.

While we were waiting for dinner I made a clean

breast of my acquaintance with her to Larry, omitting

nothing,-rejoicing even to paint my own conduct as

black as possible.

"You may remember her," I concluded, "she was the

girl we saw at Sherry's that night we dined there. She

was with Pickering, and you noticed her,-spoke of her,

as she went out."

"That little girl who seemed so bored, or tired? Bless

me! Why her eyes haunted me for days. Lord man,

do you mean to say-"

A look of utter scorn came into his face, and he eyed

me contemptuously.

"Of course I mean it!" I thundered at him.

He took the pipe from his mouth, pressed the tobacco

viciously into the bowl, and swore steadily in Gaelic

until I was ready to choke him.

"Stop!" I bawled. "Do you think that's helping me?

And to have you curse in your blackguardly Irish dialect!

I wanted a little Anglo-Saxon sympathy, you

fool! I didn't mean for you to invoke your infamous

gods against the girl!"

"Don't be violent, lad. Violence is reprehensible,"

he admonished with maddening sweetness and patience.

"What I was trying to inculcate was rather the fact,

borne in upon me through years of acquaintance, that

you are,-to he bold, my lad, to be bold,-a good deal

of a damned fool."




Most Popular