The leader., 1905-06-10
AFORTUNE
HUNTER s 8
Byv.H. FR1EDLANDER

r HE grassy slope halfway down the
cliff inclined at exactly the right
angle. They leaned comfortably back
and watched the sea.
81 think" said the girl, softly, '1t's
perfectly wonderful.
''The sea?" he inquired.
She half turned her head toward him
and smiled.
"Me?" he hazarded, hopefully.
Perfectly wonderful, she explained,
''that no one else has chosen to come and
sit here this morning"
He pulled his hat further over his
eyes.
Don't move, she commanded, quick
ly. "I'm going to draw you"
He sat up suddenly and pushed back
his hat. His face was dull red.
"Oh," she murmured, regretfully.
looking out to sea, 'how tactless of you!
You'll never recover that position"
He opened his lips for a sharp retort;
then thought better of it.
"I'lI try" he said, shortly, and lay
back again, pulling his hat over his
eyes.
For ten minutes the sound of a pencil
and india rubber alone disturbed the
silence Hamberton had much to think
Of The next half hour was to decide
whether his life was to be one of easy
idleness or of unwilling labor He was
anxious to know, but he realized to a
nicely when he ought to speak. In i
little while she would begin to be sorry
that she had hurt him; that would be
the moment.
His lips curved in smile as he
thought over the position. A fortune
hunter he, without shame, admitted to
himself that he was. but he had asked
for little beyond the fortune. That fate
should send it through young, pretty
and titled girl, and should, withal, add
a spice of the unusual to favor the
whole, was, he acknowledged, generous.
For the girl who had spent a month in
the same village with him-she at the
house of her old nurse, he at the inn
calling herself Eleanor March, was. as
he had happened to know, none other
than Lady Hermione Forbes, possessor,
in her own right, of an income of some
thing over G15,000.- The knowledge
. had reached him through the pages of a
magazine he had found at the inn, where
his eye had been caught by very excel
lent likeness of the girl. His conscience
reproached him-a trifie, but he soothed
it. He genuinely liked her; he would be
very good to her.
The sound of tearing paper broke in
on him.
"It's>no good" she said, impatiently;
81 can't get it. You can sit up; and-and
why don't you talk?"
His eyes smiled. 1t was the olive
branch for which he had been waiting.
81 want to talk he said. "But I'm
not sure whether it is the right time"
She looked at him refectively. Eyes,
it is" she said. you know that I'm
always incest after being nastiest. Oh,
it's not clever of you" she added, hasti-
ly; nearly everyone's made that way"
Its disgustingly hard to take you
in" he observed.
She looked at him oddly '1s it?" she
murmured.
Eleanor" he said, "it's only four
words I want to say. Will you marry
me?"
For a moment there was silence.
Then she turned to him slowly, and her
voice sounded tired and weak e.
don't-know," she said, hesitatingly.
its SO difficult to-"
He nodded as she paused OF course
sne was thinking of her people, of the
difficulties that would be raised Don't
answer now," he said Il can wait, of
course
But she seemed not to hear him
There's a thing" she said, that's
bothering me. l hardly know how to
tell you It--it will seem so silly If
there's nothing in it. But must know
for certain. Has it ever struck you that
/ am at all like some one e1se?" She
looked at him searchingly
So she was trying to catch him; she
had suspicion, a doubt. Hamberton
was surprised, but he had his features
admirably under control
"'Really?" He exhibited just the
right shade of amused surprise rs the
likeness very striking!
She put out her hand for an illus
trated weekly paper that lay on the grass
beside her, but her eyes never left his
face.
You can Judge for yourself she
said, slowly There's portrait Of her
in this weeks Whirligig.p
He took it from her without undue
eagerness.
All he said, and looked up to COM
pare the likeness with her face ITS
marvellous. But for the name below /
could have sworn it was you.
@Yes, its rather odd, suppose, she
agreed, indifferentIy.
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