Here and Hereafter

finishing my dinner when I was told that a man wished to see

was rather fat and roundish; his build powerful but paunchy. The colour of face and hands showed open-air life and work. His manner

ll, doctor.

the matter with

ld him so. I told him further that he ought to have made his a

ther. The women there do not have doctor or nurse. She

'll get on. Whe

onsd

ht up on the downs. Phew!

any rate-we could al

ng the car round. Shan't k

did not take my driver with me. He had been at work since eight in the morning. When I re-entered the surgery I f

said, as I pi

eigns from his waistcoat-poc

, doctor,

one my work. Come along. Sh

e me on the front seat. The first six miles were easy enough along a good road, and I talked to him as I drove. I

oreigner," I said.

man of colou

ng of physical repulsion, and equally true that I can set a

it two years ago or more when I was roaming over the downs. There was a farm-house all in ruins-and, let me see, was there a cott

e is no cottage. We came last year. Pa

the loneliest spot in Eng

cres and the farm-house. Had trou

th your wife

e's alone i

's not righ

s away, and we've had no dealings with him. It couldn't be helped, and-she's different, you know. I

hinking-how a

r. I am more intelligent and I have no nerves. You must pull u

turf track deeply rutted. Luckily the weather had been dry for the last fortnight. We crawled up to the

onsdene?"

. The desc

d that it was very bad.

h use," I said. "I'll leave the car her

ake a lamp?

tte

s deceptive. When he was actually doing something he was remarkably quick without being hurried. He was quick too in seeing a mechan

e?" I asked, as w

ted. He'd kill a stranger who c

an enormous black retriever, came running towards us

he dog paced quietly behind him,

was a rough shed on the left, with crates and packing-cases under it. The front door was flush with the wall of the house. It was unlock

. "I put in a gas-plant," he s

ndows high up in the walls. The windows were newly glazed, the walls had been repaired. There was very little furniture-three wooden windsor chairs, a couple of deal tables, and some cupboards made from packing-cases. There was no attempt at ornament or decoration of any kind, and ther

lightly aromatic smell. I wondered if it could come from the great logs that

here," I said

d, "from the smoke

those in the fir

t think you'd

ve intention. But they annoyed me a little-I did not like

id. "Now then, wh

om, on the right of the fireplace. "Through there

d

born there. You'll find in that room the things a chemist in Helmstone thought might

passed through the d

f a medical man was imperatively necessary. Otherwise all went perfectly well. The child was born in a little more than an hour after my arrival, a girl, healthy

her child, and expressed her intention of nursing it herself, of which she seemed capable. This was all natural-more natural than normal unfortunately-but all the

asked Tarn,

t my mind was awake and alert. The unusual nature of the experience may account for it. I sat

ked. I thought it a question that

t to pile up the visits, bu

coming again in any case, I should have to make

ts? Well, you've nobod

's the

sn't know w

. I'd better do it in any case-one never k

or-eh? He must be a clever b

et. You must take some refres

nd a biscuit would be r

asogen of soda-water, and some larg

health," I said, a

n't she? It's the common lot. She's hauled out of nothing by blind Chance, to be tossed back into nothing by blind C

be a happier man, Mr Tarn, and a more sensible man, if you would simply accept Nature as you f

s, yes," he said. "I've heard all that-and so often. It's the point o

n, to complain of what from insufficient data I am unable to understand. Put in other words, I am

f Mala and her

heological discussion is interesting but it is often intermin

the dog must learn that you are welcome here and that he i

nd the dog got up, shook himself, and walked slowly towards me. He went all round me, sniffing. I held out the biscuit

take food from any hand but mine. He will never forget you. You can come here at any

ce," he said. "But it occurred to me that, as I never think about clothes, I looked very poor, and that the place where I have c

ould do with a little

might expect me on the morrow. I opened my pocket-book and looked at it by the light of the lamp.

. I was haunted by that man and his negress wife, building theories about them, trying to account for them. Just as I was dropping off I was awakened again by a