ut the subject did not interest him, and he never
dreamed the period held a secret. The sudden consternation bred in Hicks
by this question astounded him not a little. Indeed, each man amazed the
other, Grimbal by his question, Hicks by the attitude which he assumed
before it.

"I'm sure I haven't the least idea," he answered; but his voice and
manner had already told Grimbal all he cared to learn at the moment; and
that was more than his wildest hopes had even risen to. He saw in the
other's face a hidden thing, and by his demeanour that it was an
important one. Indeed, the bee-keeper's hesitation and evident alarm
before this chance question proclaimed the secret vital. For the
present, and before Clement's evident alarm, Grimbal dismissed the
matter lightly; but he chose to say a few more words upon it, for the
express purpose of setting Hicks again at his ease.

"You don't like your future brother-in-law?"

"Yes, yes, I do. We've been friends all our lives--all our lives. I like
him well, and am going to marry his sister--only I see his faults, and
he sees mine--that's all."

"Take my advice and shut your eyes to his faults. That's the best way if
you are marrying into his family. I've got cause to think ill enough of
the scamp, as you know and everybody knows; but life's too short for
remembering ill turns."

A weight rolled off Clement's heart. For a moment he had feared that the
man knew something; but now he began to suspect Grimbal's question to be
what in reality it was--casual interrogation, without any shadow of
knowledge behind it. Hicks therefore breathed again and trusted that his
own emotion had not been very apparent. Then, taking the water, he shot
a thin shower into the air, an operation often employed to hasten
swarming, and possibly calculated to alarm the bees into apprehension of
rain.

"Do wasps ever get into the hives?" asked Mr. Grimbal abruptly.

"Aye, they do; and wax-moths and ants, and even mice. These things eat
the honey and riddle and ruin the comb. Then birds eat the bees, and
spiders catch them. Honey-bees do nothing but good that I can see, yet
Nature 's pleased to fill the world with their enemies. Queen and drone
and the poor unsexed workers--all have their troubles; and so has the
little world of the hive. Yet during the few weeks of a bee's life he
does an amount of work beyond imagination to guess at."

"And still finds time to steal from the hives of his fellows?"

"W