The Four Feathers

nd the bridle-path ended at its door. On three sides an amphitheatre of hills, which changed so instantly to the sea

The house faced the long slope of country to the inlet of the Lough. From the windows the eye reached down over the sparse thickets, the few tilled fields, the whitewashed cottages, to the tall woods upon the bank, and caught a glimpse of bright water and the gulls poising and dipping above it. Durrance rode up

he was shown, with its brasses and its gleaming oak and its wide prospect, was bright as the afternoon itself. Durrance imagined it, too,

without the leas

come," she said, and a s

ion of his eyes towards the violin which lay upon a table at her side. It was pale in colour;

were in Egypt. I could not w

ew," returned Durrance, "that, n

accepted it some while ago. There was a time when I needed to be assured that

rom the table, handling it del

it? The Musoline overt

or a long time I put my violin away. It talked to me too intimately of many things which I wished to

l dwindled to monosyllables; his frame was shrunken, and his clothes bagged upon his limbs; his very stature seemed lessened; even the anger was clouded from his eye; he had become a stay-at-home, dozing for the most part of the day by a fire, even in that July weather; his longest walk was to the little grey church which stood naked upon a mound some quarter of a mile away

hat he would succeed. The shadow of Harry Feversham might well separate them. For another thing, he knew very well that poverty would fall more lightly upon her than upon most women. He had indeed had proofs of that. Though the Lennon House was altogether ruined, and its lands gone from her, Ethne was still amongst her own people. They still looked eagerly for her visits; she was still the princess of that country-side. On the other hand, she took a frank pleasure in his company, and she led him to speak of his three years' service in the East. No detail was too ins

side, on the edge of a stream which leaped from ledge to ledge down a miniature gorge of roc

the desert swift as this stream here, only pellucid. So till the sun sets ahead of you level with your eyes! Imagine the nights which follow-nights of infinite silence, with a cool friendly wind blowing from horizon to horizon-and your bed spread for you under the great dome of stars. Oh," he cried, drawing a deep breath, "but that country grows on you. It's like the Southern Cross-four ov

ile. He moved nearer to her upon the grass, and sat with his f

before daybreak, in the dark, to the camp-fire at night. You would have been at ho

back there

t throbbed about them. When he did speak, all the enthusias

For two years.

upon the gra

miss you,

s he sat on the ground, and again

are you t

and sank down upon her heels. "My appointment at Halfa-I might shorten its

expression of distress as a cry of pain with another woman. He turned about towards her. Her head was bent, but she raised it as he turned, and though her lips smiled, there was a look of gre

your fathe

here is my father too.

culty can be surmounted. To tell the truth I

s I," s

rocks into a wrinkled pool of water just beneath. It was after al

feel trouble, as so many do, with half your heart.

ve a great fear that I was to some degree the cause of another man's ruin. I do not mean that I was to blame for it. But if I had not been known to him, his career might perhaps never have come to so abrupt an end. I am not sure, but I am afraid. I asked whether it was so, and I was told 'no,' but I think ve

in he a

di Halfa is not the only place where

them. A man might read a little more emphasis into their tones, and underline their words and still be short of their meaning, as he argued. A subtle delicacy graced them in nature. Durrance was near to Benedick's mood. "One whom I value"; "I shall miss you"; there might be a double meaning in the phrases. When she said that she neede

work and your journeys. I was still more glad because of the satisfaction with which you told it. For it seemed to me, as I listened and as I watched, that you had found the one tr

He ceased from argument; he

spend my life out there in the East, and the thought contented me. But I had schooled myself into contentment, for I believed you married." E

go. It is five years since your father arrested me at the ferry down there on Lough Swilly, because I wished to press on to Letterkenny and not delay a night by stopping with a stranger. Five years since I first saw you, first heard the lan

ck from his out

ving, ever moving amongst strange peoples and under strange skies-these were deep-rooted qualities of the man. Passion might obscure them for a while, but they would make their appeal in the end, and the appeal would torture. The home would become a prison. Desires would so clash within him

uch disheartened as conscious of a blunder. He had put his case badly; he should never hav

n. We shall be none the less good friends because

hands as

n in a year's time," said D

and her smi

you, I should know that I had not lost your friendship." She added, "I should also b

?" he exclai

aps, to get rid of me entirely from your thoughts;" and Durrance laughed and without any bitterness, so that in a moment Ethne found herself laughing too, thoug

interpretation he desired; and again she me

he violin which Durrance had given to her, and before she had touched the strings with her bow she recognised it and put it suddenly away from her in its case. She snapped the case to. For a few moments she sat moti

ting for him at the gates of the house, and saw that Der

u, Colonel Durrance," said Dermo

s his gaze took in that quiet corner of Donegal, he was filled with a great sadness lest all her life should be passed in this seclusion, her grave dug in the end under the wall of the tiny church, and her memory linger only in a few white

hesitation. "News of Harry Feversham? I thoug

said D

urrance.-I should have nothing but curses for him in my mouth and my heart. A black-throated coward my reason call

times as he sat in the evening upon his verandah above the Nile at Wadi Halfa, piecing together the few hints which he had gathered. "A black-throated coward," Dermod had called Harry Feversham, and Ethne had said enough to assure him that something graver than any dispute, something which had destroyed all her fa