leave. "We shall manage to get along all right for a day
or two. I can put Somers on to copy the letters, and even to write some
of them. When a fellow is bruised and shaken about, he wants to lie
quiet a little. I wouldn't mind swapping places with you, to have Miss
Ridsdale as a nurse," he added waggishly, as Mona appeared on the scene.
"Take care of him, Miss Ridsdale; good men are scarce, at any rate in
Doppersdorp. Well, good-bye, everybody; good-bye, Mrs Suffield.
Suffield, old chap, give us a fill out of your pouch to start on; mine
has hardly enough in it, I find, to carry me home."

And amid a chorus of hearty farewells, the genial R.M. flung himself
into his saddle and cantered off townwards.

"What a delightful man Mr Van Stolz is!" said Mrs Suffield, gazing
after the retreating horseman.

"I agree entirely," assented Roden. "And now I shall feel bound to go
back to-morrow, if only that one is sensitive on the point of seeming to
take advantage of his good-nature."

"Well, wait till to-morrow comes, at any rate," rejoined his hostess.
"Meanwhile, whatever you have to suffer you have richly deserved, mind
that. Wicked people, who break the Sabbath, are sure to suffer. I told
you I had a severe lecture in store for you when you were well enough,
and now you are."

"Then all I can say is the moral you want to draw is no moral at all, or
a very bad one at best," laughed Roden. "For I am `suffering' for it in
the shape of indulging in the most delicious and perfect laze, and,
better still, being made such a lot of, that I feel like
Sabbath-breaking again, if only to ensure the same result. For
instance, it's rather nice sitting here taking it easy all day, and
being so efficiently taken care of."

"Ah, you didn't find it such fun in the night, when you couldn't unscrew
the flask top. Do you know, I'll never forgive you for such
foolishness. The idea of being afraid to knock anybody up!" said Mrs
Suffield tartly.

He dared not look at Mona. The joke was too rich, and he was inwardly
bursting with the kind of mirth which is calculated to kill at the
longest range of all--mirth of a grim nature, to wit. He had told his
tale of Tantalus, when asked what sort of a night he had had. The
sequel to that episode, we need hardly say, he had not told.

"I never like disturbing anybody's hard-earned slumbers. Don't you
think I'm right, Miss Ridsdale?"

Mona, who was watering flowers just below the _