The Paradise Mystery

alf-ruinous gateway which admits to the Close of Wrychester. Nowhere else in England is there a fairer prospect of old-world peace. There before their eyes, set in the centre of a great green

inst the ether. In morning, as in afternoon, or in evening, here is a perpetual atmosphere of rest; and not around the great church alone, but in the quaint and ancient houses which fence in the Close. Little less old than the mighty mass of stone on which their ivy-framed windows look, these houses make the casual observer feel that here, if anywhere in the wo

roof-a room of old furniture, and, old pictures, and old books, its antique atmosphere relieved by great masses of flowers, set here and there in old china bowls: through its wide windows, the casements of which were thrown wide open, there was an inviting prospect of a high-edged flower garden, and, seen in vistas throu

showing a tendency to whiten about the temples. A strong, intellectually superior man, this, scrupulously groomed and well-dressed, as befitted what he really was-a medical practitioner with an excellent connection amongst the exclusive society of a cathedral town. Around him hung an undeniable air of content and prosperity-as he turned over a pile of letters which stood by his plate, or glanced at the morning newspaper which lay a

bacon and dry toast; the other, the study of a Latin textbook, which he had propped up in front of him against the old-fashioned silver cruet. His quick eyes wandered alternately between his book and his plate; now and then he muttered a

re of blue; each had a bright, vivid colour; each was undeniably good-looking and eminently healthy. No one would have doubted that both had lived a good deal of an open-air existence: the boy was already muscular and sinewy: the girl looked as if she was well acqua

tter-evidently, from the large sprawling handwriting, the missive of some girlish correspondent. She was deep

ck!" she said. "You

its smaller bell-tower for three minutes before nine o'clock every morning, all the year round. What Martin's object had been no one now knew-but this bell served to remind young gentlemen going to offices, and boys going to school, that the hour of their servitude was

of the power of legs that are only seventeen years old. Dick could get to any given point in just about one-fou

he empty cup and b

te," she remarked. "It's t

etty free from anything of that sort, you know.

growth and interfere with his cricket," answere

ldn't give him higher! Know how to repress his inclinations. A

cigarettes which stood on the mantelpiece. And the girl, instead

u," she said. "You're quite right about people not rep

. Her eyes shifted their gaze away to her letter, and she picked it up and began to fold it nervously.

?" he

nct annoyance and dislike. Before sayi

" he said at last.

I dislike him intensely-I can't tell why, but it's there, and nothing could ever alter the feeling. And th

ettle with him myself. It's useless trifling with anything like that.

?" she asked anxiously

d. "Don't you trouble yourself about it-I'm not at all keen about him. He's a cleve

should lose him his situation-or whatever you

ther in two minutes-so to speak. Anyway, we can't have th

ay, looked out across the garden as if s

e, such an awfully long time since!" sa

a man took it as final," replied Ransford. "At

n't get what he wants in this world, it won't be for not asking for it. But-if you must speak to him-and I really thi

these degenerate days," said Ransford. "But-I won't have

m you've told flatly, once for all, that you don't want

'll speak to him. There's going to be

e, and Ransford turned away fro

o tell me that, because I know it already. No

back with a sudd

asked brusq

a whole year's gone by since then. And-Dick's seventeen! He won't be satisfied always-just to know no more than that our fat

his pockets, squared his shoulders against the mantelpiece. "Do

wenty-do you really think I shall be any w

he replied. "You may

" she persisted. "Is there any reason

ys known that some moment of this sort must inevitably come, felt that she was no

don't know anything-at all. I never have known,

g questions?" deman

say," she went on, "that it doesn't matter, nowadays, if you can't tell who your grandfather was-but, jus

riend of mine, a man of business, who, with your mother, died young, and I, as their fr

at Ransford began to feel uncomfortable under it. "Don't be angry-or hurt-if I tell you plainly what it is. I'm qui

or a moment stood staring out on his garden and the glimpses of the Cat

lot-but sufficient to-to cover all your expenses. Education-everything. When you're twenty-one, I'll hand over yours-when Dick's twenty-on

dden glance which made him turn away again. "And I only wanted to know-b

me!" he

don't you understand? I-wanted to know-so

e, I can scarcely-yet-realize that you're both growing up! You were at school a year ago. An

ll me more about our father and mother?-but never mind even that

ht to have remembered. And-but we'll talk again. I mus

nd promise not to offend again," she sai

and down a long stone-walled passage which led to his surgery at the side of the house. H

keep up the pleasant fiction about the money without her ever knowing that I told her a deliberate lie just now. But-what's in the future? Here's one man to be dismissed already, and there'll be others, and one of them will be the favou

d proceeded to open them-in which occupation he was presently interrupte