Love Among the Chickens

namused by them many a time. In a book which I had read only a few daysbefore our cold-dinner party a shop-woman, annoyed with an omn

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

plosion and departure, and he ought by all laws of justice to haves

s willing to talk to himby the hour on any subject, pleasant or unpleasant. If, on the otherhand, he wished to have

e donemy work as historian with an adequate degree of skill, the

ot love as

id that I've

beanstalkwas a backward plant in comparison. It is true that we had not seen agreat deal of one another, and that, when we had met, our interviewhad been brief and our conversation conventional; but it is theintervals between the meeting that do the real damage. Absence--I donot claim the thought as my own--makes the heart grow fonder. And now,thanks to Ukridge's amazing idiocy, a barrier had been thrust bet

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

ckle to, laddie. There mustbe no slackness. We are at a critical stage. On our work now dependsthe success of th

d. Can't get the novel offyour chest, or wha

Mind you, Ithink old Derrick would be all right if one persevered--""--and didn't call him a fat little buffer and contradict e

I saw him eating cheese, 'that fellow's going tohave a nasty shooting pain sooner or later.' I say, laddie, just heaveanother rock or two at those cocks, will you. They'll slay eachother."I had hoped, fearing the while that there was not much chance of sucha thing happening, that the profess

ed, from the strong likeness between them, her sister. She hadthe same mass

is like treading on nothing where one imagined astair to be. In the present instance the

ave declared positivelythat she moved her eyes

lled her to followher father's lead, and that the act

, was how I read

I met Mr. Chase

o you're ba

he admitted; "will you have a cig

ar, while I was

no

He would. So now you have parted brass rags. It's a pity."I agreed. I am glad to say that I suppressed the desire to ask him touse his influence, if any, with Mr. Derrick to effect areconc

know," said Mr. Chase. "You'reunder arre

s not yet ripe. He may be said at present to besimmering down.""I see. Thank

y. I saw nothing more o

disappointedlovers. On the other hand, it does not follow that because a man is afailure as a lover he will be any good a

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

er night till I came to the hedge thatshut off the Derrick's grounds. Not the hedge through which I had mademy first entrance, but another, lower, and nearer the house. Standingthere under the shade of a tree I could see the lighted wind

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

Another day had generally begun before I moved from my hiding-place,and star