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THE MOTION TLCTUHE iSTORY MAGAZINE
merits fallen to the floor. Then he turned, tall, straight, and crossed the sunny morning lawn. Beyond the hedge the road beckoned, but he denied its bidding.
' ' There is that here which will stay me," he said half-aloud. It was almost as tho he spoke in explanation to an unseen presence. The torn strips, cunningly pieced, read curtly :
Colonel Payson:— All business is over between us. I must, therefore, ask you to pay me at once the thousand pounds I loaned you. Kichakd Kikby.
*' About the world and its ways," she sighed. ' ' How life is a millstream and, on a sudden, a whirlpool — how yesterday, today and tomorrow are ill
friends ^" Then, suddenly, she
found herself speaking of her boylover, their long almost-betrothal, and the unease that had come to her. ' ' 'Tis but a stripling ! ' ' she lamented. ''Nay, sooth, but a child. And I — I — ah! sir, but a woman wishes for strength to lean on, sith she is so lacking therein. Yet I am sorely beset — my mind goes this way and that — " The Passer-by listened gravely. He did not seem to notice the betrayal of her eyes, the surrender of her voice. Fascinated, she watched the dark face, clean-cut on the sky above her, comparing it to Arthur's. The woman's loyal heart of her rose in arms, yet — yet
TIIE PASSER-BY SAYS ADIEU
The Passer-by mused above the ruined missive. His fingers, questing in his waistcoat, came forth empty.
''A thousand?" mused he, slowly. A swift smile edged his lips. ''And she so young and fragrant, like the opening rose. A thousand pounds! A thousand pities! And the maid herself, as I live, yonder, by the stream."
Betty looked up. A sunrise of color flooded her cheeks.
"You?" she said softly. "You have not gone, then "
"Anon!" he answered gravely. "What do you by the brook, Opheliawise?"
"Feeding the ducks," she answered vaguely, "and wondering "
"On what?"
Then, after a while — hours or minutes — he left her, striding straightly across the checkered sward. And she watched him disappear, not quite knowing what he had said or she, but poignantly aware that he was gone.
As she turned, sighing heavily, to the house, she saw Squire Brinkley fling himself from his horse by the door.
' ' He has come to speak of Arthur, ' ' was her first thought. But no; he was holding out a slip of paper, and her father was livid with anger. She hastened her steps.
"I'm sorry. Colonel," the Squire was saying in red embarrassment, "but Dick Kirby told me — and — well, I thought I'd better make certain of collecting my own debts first. ' ' Colonel Payson drew himself up very tall.
"Your thousand pounds shall be given to you, Squire Brinkley," he said coldly, "at once."
But, a few moments later, as he and Betty watched the Squire complacently fold a roll of notes into a mon