ct was intolerable; so were
other matters; for instance, his monotonous office life, the want of
variety and fresh air. For exercise, he belonged to a neighbouring
gymnasium, but this was not sufficient for a country-bred, energetic
young man, in his twenty-fourth year. As for the variety of amusements
that satisfied and delighted his brother clerks, they left him cold.
He was sensible of a tormenting thirst for a far-away different
life--and its chances, sick of this existence, of continually going
round and round, like a squirrel in a cage. A change of surroundings
and scene, or a spice of adventure, was what he longed for--as eagerly
and as hopelessly as some fallen wayfarer in a desert land. His
mother's flinty attitude and hostile nagging had frozen a naturally
affectionate disposition, and Shafto passed several years of his youth
without one single ray of woman's love, until generous Mrs. Malone had
come forward and installed him in her heart. His usual routine was
breakfast at eight, office at nine, lunch twelve-thirty, freedom at
six, dinner at seven-thirty. On Saturday afternoons he was expected at
"Monte Carlo"--to join the family at tennis and high tea--and here,
over the little red villa, brooded yet another cloud! Cossie, the
gushing and good-natured, had been given what her brother brutally
termed "the chuck" by her young man; he had taken on another girl, and
his repentance and return were hopeless.

Shafto listened to Cossie's hysterical lamentations and outpourings
with what patience he could assume; until by degrees the dreadful truth
began to dawn on him, that _he_ was selected to replace the faithless
Lothario! Of late Cossie's manner had become jealously possessive, She
seemed to hold him by a nipping tenacious clutch, and pattered out to
meet him at the gate, sat next to him at table, and was invariably his
partner at tennis. Once, arriving unseen, he had overheard her
declaiming to another girl:

"No, no, no, I won't have it; Douglas is my boy--and my joy! Douglas
belongs to _me_!"

"There will be two opinions about that," he muttered to himself, as he
flung down his hat and entered the tawdry little drawing-room; but, in
spite of his stern resolutions, he found himself borne along by a
strong and irresistible current of family goodwill. Sandy gave him
cigars, Delia declared over and over again that he was a "darling," his
aunt became extra-motherly, and Cossie endowed him with butto