The Reverberator

intercourse a year before: he was the first to refer to the marked change in the situation. They had got into the high set

?" Mr. Dosson asked; not having perceived for himself any reason why the you

ll grow again!" And Francie made the point that it was no use for him to pose as a martyr, since he knew perfectly well that with all the celebrated people he saw and the way he flew round he had the most enchanting time. She was aware of being a good deal less accessible than the previous spring, for Mesdames de Brecourt and de Cliche-the former indeed more than the latter-occupied m

sought by the count and the marquis, whose mastery of English was small and their other distractions great. Mr. Probert, it was true, had shown something of a conversible spirit; he had come twice to the hotel since his son's departure and had said, smiling and reproachful, "You neglect us, you neglect us, my dear sir!" The good man had not understood what was meant by this till Delia explained after the visitor had withdrawn, and even then the remedy for the neglect, administered two or three days later, had not borne any copious fruit. Mr. Dosson called alone, instructed by his daughter, in the Cours la Reine, but Mr. Probert was not at home. He only left a card on which Delia had superscribed in advance, almost with the legibility of print, the words "So sorry!" Her father had told her

they do?" Fra

e marquis won't be in

sted in them. He can write somethi

would?" Delia had s

he should sa

ed. "They get off so many themselves. Only t

ike to be prais

elia had conti

Delia-the girls had now at their command a landau as massive as the coach of an ambassador-driving away to the dressmaker's, a frequent errand, to superintend and urge forward the progress of her sister's wedding-clothes. Francie was not skilled in composition; she wrote slowly and had in thus addressing her lover much the same sense of sore tension she supposed she should have in standing at the altar with him. Her father and Delia had a

infinite of the bright propriety of her having written

d on entering, "to propose this, but I

with?" she aske

chance. Just you

w what it's

erable for a quarter of an hour. It m

ble?"-Francie took i

le." And settling himself on the sofa Mr. Flack cont

minently capable of the sense that it wasn't in his interest to strike her as indiscreet and profane; he only wanted still to appear a real reliable "gentleman friend." At the same time he was not indifferent to the profit for him of her noticing in him a sense as of a good fellow on

hing; I'm just wher

l me a good lot about it," sa

at. What do you want to k

st who has to get his living by studying-up things has to think TOO much, sometimes, in o

t the note of pathos. "Wha

ell; and I listen and watch-well, for what I can drink in or can buy. I hoped YOU'D have something to tell-for I'm not talking now of anything

e? They've been very kind and sweet," Francie mi

them?" George Flack

the girl went on. "You can't resist the

ight out about their ways," her c

if once I were to begin. But I don

g that concerns you? Didn't I tell yo

, and you'd be foolish to sa

an exclamation of impatience and incredulity, and Mr. Flack pursued: "Don't you remember what you tol

all right,"

sions, their situations and adventures? Especially a person like me, who ha

ld teach you about life?"

people it's difficult to get at unless one take

an? What measur

call that energetic, and don't you think I ought to know?" smiled Mr. Flack with much meaning. "I thoug

itted with a resigned sigh. Then she sai

If I can't get it in the shape I like it I don't want it at all; first-rate first-hand information, straight from the tap, is what I'm after. I don't want to hear what some one or other thinks that some one or other was told that some one or other believed or said; and above all I don't want to print it. Th

rator. You've some fine piece

e old gentleman-the weekly edition? I tho

ia reads it more than I; she reads pieces aloud.

s, the great institution of our time. Some of the finest books

same aspirations," F

me aspi

e about that day

ever broke out to you that

r now?" the girl went on, determine

w and it wasn't the sort of help I meant to ask you for then. I want sympathy and interest; I want some one to say to me once in a while 'Keep up your old heart, Mr. Flack; you'll come out all right.' You see I'm a working-man and I don't pretend to be

rancie decided not q

kes you ash

ppression, of vague discomfort, had come over her. Her

e ashamed to go

nd w

too and stood there looking at her with his bright eyes, his hands in the pockets o

n the carpet; then raising the

vice-without any inconvenience probably t

he won't g

n't giv

ase he should take a fancy to change it. But I hope he won't chang

nt and I want to see i

y don't

e me; that's the servi

verywhere-into the palace

needn't protest," the young man went on; "if a fellow's made sensitive he has got to stay so. I feel those things in the

visitor. "Why if it hadn't been for you "-I'm afraid

little. "If it hadn't been for me I think

d suddenly she blushed red, rat

ith you to-morrow, or next day or any day, to the Avenue de Villiers, and I shall regard myself as amply repaid. With y

them, and as she was more listless about almost anything than at the sight of a person wronged she winced at his describing himself as disavowed or made light of after the prize was gained. Her mind had not lingered on her personal indebtedness to him

use. "If I want to see the picture it's because I want to write about it. The whole thing will go bang into the Reverberator. You must underst

ng on famously with her French. "Of course i

't care much whether HE likes it or not. For you to

l be awful

-I shall say you're the pretties

"It will be immense fun to be in the newspapers

hat. He smoothed it down a moment with his glove; th

lo

just you

Father and Delia have see

on, but without even yet taking his departure. He asked two or three questions about the hotel, whether it were as good as last year and there were many people in it and they could keep their

bigo

here the throne and the altar? And don't they want the throne too? I mean Mr. Probert,

ous people I ever saw. They just adore the Holy Father. They kno

ean to introdu

mean, to i

atholic, to take you

ur voyage de noces!" said Fra

Catholic marriage if They won'

just like one that Mme. de Brecou

be at the Mad

we have it at

ur father and si

g it at No

ne. Your not having it

aid Francie simply. Then she added: "And

ng about," Mr. Flack replied. Whereupon he at last took himself o

y had come to in relation to the drive. Delia brooded on it a while like a sitting hen, so little did she know that it was

very intimate if you were to see

Delia declared-the sharpness of whic

Flack we would never have had that picture, and that if it

if that's the way you're going to behave

evertheless struck by Delia's rigour. "I'm

l of a sudden too

ejudice against him and has made him

bear him; that's what

d be kind to him. Why Delia,

irl; "but things that are very different from

like better. He wants to put a

your pi

me. All about

e a good one!" she said with a groan of oppres