s a good chap."

"Yes," murmured Felix, "but a firebrand. This business at
Malloring's--what's it going to lead to, Tod? We must look out, old man.
Couldn't you send Derek and Sheila abroad for a bit?"

"Wouldn't go."

"But, after all, they're dependent on you."

"Don't say that to them; I should never see them again."

Felix, who felt the instinctive wisdom of that remark, answered
helplessly:

"What's to be done, then?"

"Sit tight." And Tod's hand came down on Felix's shoulder.

"But suppose they get into real trouble? Stanley and John don't like it;
and there's Mother." And Felix added, with sudden heat, "Besides, I
can't stand Nedda being made anxious like this."

Tod removed his hand. Felix would have given a good deal to have been
able to see into the brain behind the frowning stare of those blue eyes.

"Can't help by worrying. What must be, will. Look at the birds!"

The remark from any other man would have irritated Felix profoundly;
coming from Tod, it seemed the unconscious expression of a really felt
philosophy. And, after all, was he not right? What was this life they
all lived but a ceaseless worrying over what was to come? Was not all
man's unhappiness caused by nervous anticipations of the future? Was not
that the disease, and the misfortune, of the age; perhaps of all the
countless ages man had lived through?

With an effort he recalled his thoughts from that far flight. What if
Tod had rediscovered the secret of the happiness that belonged to birds
and lilies of the field--such overpowering interest in the moment that
the future did not exist? Why not? Were not the only minutes when he
himself was really happy those when he lost himself in work, or love?
And why were they so few? For want of pressure to the square moment.
Yes! All unhappiness was fear and lack of vitality to live the present
fully. That was why love and fighting were such poignant ecstasies--they
lived their present to the full. And so it would be almost comic to say
to those young people: Go away; do nothing in this matter in which your
interest and your feelings are concerned! Don't have a present, because
you've got to have a future! And he said:

"I'd give a good deal for your power of losing yourself in the moment,
old boy!"

"That's all right," said Tod. He was examining the bark of a tree, which
had nothing the matter with it, so far as Felix could see; while his dog,
who had followed them, c