Love Among the Chickens

n amused by them many a time. In a book which I had read only a few days before our cold-dinner party a shop-woman, annoyed with an om

his when I read it, but now that Fate had arranged a precisely similar situation, with

aterially affected. It did not matter to Ukridge. He did not care twopence one way or the other. If the professor were friendly, he was willing to talk to him by the hour on any subjec

done my work as historian with an adequate degree of skill, the

t love as

d that I've

was a by-

as, of course,

rue that we had not seen a great deal of one another, and that, when we had met, our interview had been brief and our conversation conventional; but it is the intervals between the meeting that do the real damage. Absence-I do not claim the thought as my own-makes the heart grow fonder. And now, thanks to Ukridge's amazing idiocy, a barrier had been thrust between us. Lord knows, the bu

agger along without him. It's quite possible to be happy without knowing old Derrick. Millions of people are going about the world at this moment, singing like larks out of pure light-heartedness, who don't even know of his existence. And, as a matter of fact, old

the speculation. Look at those damned cocks. They're always fighting. Heave a stone at them, laddie, while you're up. What's the matter with you? You seem pipped. Can't get the novel off your chest, or what? You take my tip

hing he said and spoil all his stories by breaking in with ches

blest men I have met have been fat little buffers. What was the matter with old Derrick was a touch of liver. I said to myself, when I saw him eating cheese, 'th

g of injury during the night and be as friendly as ever next day. But he was evidently a man who had no objection whatever to letting

d, from the strong likeness between them, her sister. She had the same mass

mitigated to a certain extent-not largely-by the fact that Phyllis looked at me. She did not move her head, and I could not have declared positively that she moved her eyes; but neverthele

was how I read

I met Mr. Chase

you're ba

t," he admitted; "will you

was a

r, while I was

odd

did what you warned me against.

e Ru

d it among o

professor

e a

ou have parted bras

rrick to effect a reconciliation. I felt that I must play the game. To request one's rival to give one assis

to you, you know," said Mr.

-?" I stoppe

so. I'll do

ry good

ipe. He may be said at pre

Thanks.

lo

ked on with long

in this time of stress. Golf is the game of disappointed lovers. On the other hand, it does not follow that because a man is a failure as a lover

faithful reproduction of his attitude on the beach. Only by a studied imit

r night till I came to the hedge that shut off the Derrick's grounds. Not the hedge through which I had made my first entrance, but another, lower, and nearer the house. Standing there under the shade of a tree I could see the lighted wind

night, broken by an occasional rustling in the grass or the hedge; the

h nights, all

to look an

my hiding-place, and started for home, surprised t