in the world, to give away his best one,
and keep the patches for himself....

And the first thing that he said, returning to her after his
thunderbolt surprise, seemed also beautifully characteristic of his
strange faiths.

"Well, it's wonderful," said he, in quite a natural voice. "Of course,
the greatest thing that will ever happen to me.... And yet--it may seem
strange to you--but I've felt all along--I've _felt_--that something
like this might probably happen any time."

Moved as she was, Cally could have smiled at that. But when she saw the
intense honesty of his face, which still wore that half-startled yet
shining look, the look of a man with a sudden secret all his own, she
did not smile, and her own thought was given quite a new course.

"Perhaps you're a nice sort of mind-reader," said she, gently, "for you
were right to feel that way, at least as far as my father is concerned.
I specially wanted you to know about that. Papa has been planning for
six years to put up a new building--only last month he had arranged to
spend quite a lot of money in repairs. I just came to understand all
this to-day. The trouble has been," said Cally, looking up at the old
family enemy with no sense of hesitation or reluctance--"I've always
been too expensive, you see. I've never left him any money to carry out
his plans...."

She would not say anything about horse-leech's daughters, not, of all
things, wanting to embarrass him to-day. But possibly his mind filled in
a hiatus here, and there was no mistaking that what she said about her
father impressed him profoundly.

"I ... I really seem to have known. You might call it a sort of--of
premonition--if you wanted to ... Though you'll naturally not think I've
acted that way."

Mr. V.V. stood by a spindly table, carefully examining a small but
costly vase, the property of Mr. Heth, of the Cheroot Works; and now he
went on with a kind of diffident resolution, the air of one who gives a
confidence with difficulty, but must do so now, for his honor.

"You may remember my telling you once that I was--was sorry to write the
factory articles you just mentioned. The truth is I've hated to write
them--especially as to--as to the Works.... It's just the sort of thing
I've wanted for a long time to write, too. I had the argument thought
out down to the bone. Oh, they're good.... I--I was going to send the
first lot to the 'Chronicle' this week.... And yet--well, it's been
pulling