sed business, as you are quite sharp
enough to have seen for yourself."

"I understood that an engagement was involved," I remarked.

"On my part, perhaps, not on hers," he answered. "Oh! can't you
understand, Quatermain, that sometimes men find themselves forced
into strange situations against their will?"

Remembering the very ugly name that I had heard Rodd call Marnham
on the night of the card party, I reflected that I could
understand well enough, but I only said--

"After all marriage is a matter that concerns a woman even more
than it does her father, one, in short, of which she must be the
judge."

"Quite so, Quatermain, but there are some daughters who are
prepared to make great sacrifices for their fathers. Well, she
will be of age ere long, if only I can stave it off till then.
But how, how?" and with a groan he turned and left me.

That old gentleman's neck is in some kind of a noose, thought I
to myself, and his difficulty is to prevent the rope from being
drawn tight. Meanwhile this poor girl's happiness and future are
at stake.

"Allan," said Anscombe to me a little later, for by now he called
me by my Christian name, "I suppose you haven't heard anything
about those oxen, have you?"

"No, I could scarcely expect to yet, but why do you ask?"

He smiled in his droll fashion and replied, "Because, interesting
as this household is in sundry ways, I think it is about time
that we, or at any rate that I, got out of it."

"Your leg isn't fit to travel yet, Anscombe, although Rodd says
that all the symptoms are very satisfactory."

"Yes, but to tell you the truth I am experiencing other symptoms
quite unknown to that beloved physician and so unfamiliar to
myself that I attribute them to the influences of the locality.
Altitude affects the heart, does it not, and this house stands
high."

"Don't play off your jokes on me," I said sternly. "What do you
mean?"

"I wonder if you find Miss Heda attractive, Allan, or if you are
too old. I believe there comes an age when the only beauties
that can move a man are those of architecture, or scenery, or
properly cooked food."

"Hang it all! I am not Methusaleh," I replied; "but if you mean
that you are falling in love with Heda, why the deuce don't you
say so, instead of wasting my time and your own?"

"Because time was given to us to waste. Properly considered it
is the best use to which it can be put, or at any rate the one
that does least mi