ears back, who, as a lonely only child, had lived so intensely
secret, imaginative a life, peopling the prim alleys of Hyde Park with
fairies, imps, tricksy hobgoblins in whom he more than half believed,
and longing even then, as ever after, for the unattainable, never
carelessly happy as his father and mother believed him to be....

Hugh Elwyn stayed with the Bellairs all that night. He shared the sick
suspense the hour of the crisis brought, and he was present when the
specialist said the fateful words, "I think, under God, this child will
live."

When at last Elwyn left the house, clad in an old light coat of
Bellair's in order that the folk early astir should not see that he was
wearing evening clothes, he felt happier, more light-hearted, than he
had done for years.

His life had been like a crowded lumber-room, full of useless and
worn-out things he had accounted precious, while he had ignored the one
possession that really mattered and that linked him, not only with the
future, but with the greatest reality of his past.

The inevitable pain which this suddenly discovered treasure was to bring
was mercifully concealed from him, as also the sombre fact that he would
henceforth go lonely all his life, perforce obliged to content himself
with the crumbs of another man's feast. For Peter Bellair, high-strung,
imaginative, as he will ever be, will worship the strong, kindly, simple
man he believes to be his father, but to that dear father's friend he
will only yield the careless affection born of gratitude for much
kindness.

* * * * *

In the matter of the broken engagement, Hugh Elwyn was more fairly
treated by the men and women whom the matter concerned, or who thought
it concerned them, than are the majority of recusant lovers.

"Hugh Elwyn has never been quite the same since the war, and you know
Winifred Fanshawe really liked the other man the best," so said those
who spent an idle moment in discussing the matter, and they generally
added, "It's a good thing that he's spending the summer with his old
friends, the Bellairs. They're living very quietly just now, for their
little boy has been dreadfully ill, so it's just the place for poor old
Hugo to get over it all!"

ST. CATHERINE'S EVE

I

"In this matter of the railway James Mottram has proved a false friend,
a very traitor to me!"

Charles Nagle's brown eyes shone with anger; he looked loweringly at his
com