wind lay with their shadows thrown shoreward on the cold smooth water, almost to the verge
tte to see his first play at the theatre when it should be performed-was very soothing. The beach rather looked like a stage, and the sea like a ghostly audience, with, if you will, the broadside bulks of black sailing craft at anchor for representatives of the newspaper piers. Annette was a nice girl; if a little commonplace and low-born, yet sweet. What a subject he could make of her father! "The Deserter" of
m fellow, to belying out on the beach on a cold night. Lord! I don't like
said Fellingham, j
's taking leave
gasped. "Good heavens, Mr.
lad. Girls choose as
d you say, sir? W
t. I could n't have done that myself. And I believe I'm in for a headache to-morrow; upon my soul, I do. Mart Tinman would champagne us; but, poor old boy, I struck him, and I couldn't make amends-didn't see my way; and we joined hands over the glass-to the deuce w
Tin man's wine. He touched Van Diemen on the shoul
oinder. "Except that I did n't exactly-I think you said I exactly'?-I did n't bargain for old Mart as my-but he's a sound ma
said Fellingham, wi
ly obliged to you for yo
en. "Her
ightly on seeing Herbert, whom she had taken for a coastguard, she
calling on his lungs to clear themselves and r
an's champagne!"
contact of two hostil
walked
r.--what's your Christian name? Stop with us as long as you like. Old friends for me! The joke of it is that Nelson was my man, and yet I went and enlisted in the cavalry. If you talk of chemical substances, old Mart Tinman was
e wind a little
"Allow me; your sha
er arms, and, pressing
not true? A word
m not cold," she replied and
olly boys! It's the air on the champagne. And hang me," said he, as
d; she stood like
Diemen would be to hear himself called squire in Old England. And a convict he was, for he did wrong once, but he worked his redemption. And the smell of my own property makes me feel my legs again. And I'll tell you what, Mr. Hubbard, as Netty calls you whe
olve a upon him, Van Diemen bored through a sh
I lost
disengaging her feminine garments to step after him
came out on
ense. I'm puffed up with money, and have n't the heart I once had. I say, Fellowman, Fellowbird, Hubbard-what's your right name?-
, I think, would like t
ne
be getting cold,"
replied Van Diemen, and
there was a novel directness and heat of tone in Herbert that alarmed her, and with reason. He divined in hideous outlines what had happened. He was no longe
gged him to l
al officer in the army, and if I have your permission-you see, anything's better, as it seems to me, than that you should depend for peace and comfort on o
s a dead
me, sir. I love your dau
nd your inter
struggled f
have you been
!" she answered the
your mind to the fact that it is known. What is known to Mr. Tinm
l Mart!" Van D
said Annette, and turned her eyes from the half-paralyz
as being discussed. At any rate, it's kn
a day. I'd rather live
elf, as to prepare for t
most generous!" Annet
id Herbert. "Can you suppose it generous, that even in the extremest case, he s
s prov
ished by his not allowin
I cannot hear it said th
might stay his attacks on Mr. Tinman; and she believed he had only been guessing the circumstances in which her father was placed; but the co
leave the r
engaged herself,
s being sober. I don't ask your opinion of me; I am a deserter, false to my colours, a breaker of his oath. Only mark this: I was married, and a common trooper, married to a handsome young woman, true as steel; but she was handsome, and we were starvation poor, and she had to endure persecution from an officer day by day. Bear that situation in your mind. . . . Providence dropped me a hundred pounds out of the sky. Properly speaking, it popped up out of the earth, for I reaped it, you may say, from a relative's grave. Rich and poor 's all right, if I'm rich and you're poor; and you may be happy though you're poor; but where there are many poor young women, lots of rich m
nformation from the Horse Guards; as for the people kn
lenced him. "I feel it, if it's in the wind; ever since Mart T
to bed, manifestly solaced by the idea t
her father to think of. It filled him with a vague apprehension, but he was unable to imagine that a young girl, and an English girl, and an enthusiastic young English girl, co