"'Twas very odd what we said to each other years ago; I often think of

it. I mean our saying that if we still liked each other when you were

twenty and I twenty-five, we'd--"

"It was child's tattle."

"H'm!" said Giles, suddenly.

"I mean we were young," said she, more considerately. That gruff

manner of his in making inquiries reminded her that he was unaltered in

much.

"Yes....I beg your pardon, Miss Melbury; your father SENT me to meet

you to-day."

Advertisement..

"I know it, and I am glad of it."

He seemed satisfied with her tone and went on: "At that time you were

sitting beside me at the back of your father's covered car, when we

were coming home from gypsying, all the party being squeezed in

together as tight as sheep in an auction-pen. It got darker and

darker, and I said--I forget the exact words--but I put my arm round

your waist and there you let it stay till your father, sitting in front

suddenly stopped telling his story to Farmer Bollen, to light his pipe.

The flash shone into the car, and showed us all up distinctly; my arm

flew from your waist like lightning; yet not so quickly but that some

of 'em had seen, and laughed at us. Yet your father, to our amazement,

instead of being angry, was mild as milk, and seemed quite pleased.

Have you forgot all that, or haven't you?"

She owned that she remembered it very well, now that he mentioned the

circumstances. "But, goodness! I must have been in short frocks," she

said.

"Come now, Miss Melbury, that won't do! Short frocks, indeed! You know

better, as well as I."

Grace thereupon declared that she would not argue with an old friend

she valued so highly as she valued him, saying the words with the easy

elusiveness that will be polite at all costs. It might possibly be

true, she added, that she was getting on in girlhood when that event

took place; but if it were so, then she was virtually no less than an

old woman now, so far did the time seem removed from her present. "Do

you ever look at things philosophically instead of personally?" she

asked.

"I can't say that I do," answered Giles, his eyes lingering far ahead

upon a dark spot, which proved to be a brougham.

"I think you may, sometimes, with advantage," said she. "Look at

yourself as a pitcher drifting on the stream with other pitchers, and

consider what contrivances are most desirable for avoiding cracks in

general, and not only for saving your poor one. Shall I tell you all

about Bath or Cheltenham, or places on the Continent that I visited

last summer?"




Most Popular