The herald., 1896-08-02

chance Of it--i' r'v. n ran means II
! 40 n -.-5 w the me ne has passed
! trir =. dave AJu sumo sort OF control over
49,. .wn thoughts. He must be able to say
to himself, 'Such-and such an episode is
closed; you must not think OF this; you
must not remember that
Can any man control his own thoughts? ?"
1T is a popular fallacy that he cannot.
do, and many men do. l believe that
most men OF my age with the average his
tory--or history ever so little worse than
the average-must either learn to do that.
or must 90 mad. Blu. enough-we will talk
OF other things"
Perhaps 1t was because l had not his ia
cility for putting things out of my mind.
Certainly. although we did talk of other
things fer some time we spoke with some
seriousness and constraint. Gradually we
got back to the old manner.
do you remember" he said, that l
wrote to you about some opals? You took
that solemnly-at the foot of the letter.
1t was only my way of conveying to you
the news that l was dealing in opals. I
had fifteen hundred pounds worth of them
lying on the big table at which I sat when
l wrote to you. But I didn't mean that I
wanted you to find me market for them"
When you write to man who is in a
bad temper, underline anything which is
not to be taken seriously, and tell him
you've done it. Then he may possibly I'M
derstand you. However, you did well with
your opals. If Sinden is the result
mot as well as / should have done
Opals do not fetch their real value yet
they will. but at present they don't. tried
other things too, but we needn't go into
the details of my eygrubbing Not be-
ing Croesus like yourself had to grub
and did grub 1t would have been too alb
surd for Wilmay not to have had anything
she wanted. However, it's over now"
1t is, perhaps, as well that 1 should ex-
plain that | was not a Croesus / had an
annual income of G. 100 year, and no
prospect that 1t would ever be increased.
Indeed, as 1t was derived in part from the
rent OF agricultural land, it promised to
grow less.
asked him how long he had been at
Sinden.
II have been here" he answered lone
week to-day. l have only been in England
fortnight. l had an agent here watching
for chance to buy Sinden for me, and as
sSStA 40 AO SabiSu " Llc lldL ne QdQ got III
I returned
was rather surprised. There was moth
ing in the furniture or ARRANGEMENTS of
the house which indicated SO recent an oc-
cupation. There was nothing temporary
OF makeshift. I said as much, and he ex-
planned that he had been lucky in making
people do things for him the way he want
ed them done. He said that on the next
day he and Wilmay would show me the
place.
Tell me about Wilmay," 1 said. "what
is she like
He turned his head, smiled, and told me
to see for myself.
looked round. had not heard sound.
but the library door had been opened and
Wilmay stood there. After all these years.
l have but to close my eyes and 1 can still
see Wilmay as I saw her then-a white
ngure standing In the dark doorway.
She was in a long white night. gown.
Her feet We're bare, exquistely shaped.
looking as If they were made of rose
petals. Her hair of the palest gold. hung
down below her waist Her deep blue
child's eyes were fixed on her father and