The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-02

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take. You are going to have soup and
meat and roast apples. And If you at,
, tempt to deny it, shall instantly add
toasted cheese
Thurso was silent a moment.
All, those poor, wretched people
he began. But Maud stopped him, still
with art.
IN not going to hear one word
about them till you have finished din
ner," she said. Afterwards, because
you will be better then, we will talk.
Don It you remember how, if one WASH t
quite well, nurse always said one would
be better after dinner? And one al
ways was. I wonder whether it was
dinner or mere suggestion from a
Dinner said he promptly. "Oh,
d-n my head - he added in a sudden
burst of tired irritability and pain.
eyes, with pleasure, if that will help.
But l wonder if it was entirely dinner.
You know there is something in sug-
gestion, tho prefer supplementing sug-
gestion with something practical as
well. Who are those people who are al
ways quite well because they believe
they are9'
81 should think they are fools,' he
remarked. "By the Way,
"Weng' ~ ..
No. nothing" he said.~ .
Maud withdrew her arm from his
with dignity. - ,s.
THAT is extremely i'll bred,'' she
said. "Mind, don't want to know
what you were going to say, but having
begun you ought, with decent manners,
to 90 on
Thurso laughed.
stYou do want to know he said.
"Well, yes, I do. Plea Sc tell me-
s'I shan't. Maud, think I had bet
ter change, as [ have been in and out
of those houses all day. But you
needn IT, .-. -
Maud was slightly ruffed.
That is kind Of you,' she said.
Thurso went upstairs accordingly,
while Maud waited for him below.
There was indeed no mystery or reason
for secrecy in that which he had
stopped himself telling her; merely he
was not quite sure whether he wanted
to do that which he had been on the
point of proposing, which in itself was
Of an absolutely simple and unexciting
nature. The bare dull facts indeed
ing of the river ere until the end Of
July to an American, whose name this
moment he could not remember, and
this afternoon as he came. out of one
of the cottages he had passed one of
his own gillies walking with young
sllldu VI ClcdIly OI1S1u,
who he felt sure must be the American
in question. The remark then that he
had not made to Maud was that it might
be neighborly to invite him to dinner.
But as he made his hurried toilet, so
as not to keep his sister waiting he
found himself debating the pros and
cons of this with perfectly u1iwar-
rantable earnestness, as if the decision,
this way or that, was one that could
conceivably be of Importance. On the
one side the reasons against asking
him were that the hospitality that he
could offer was of the very toughest
and most plaincook kind, and that his
ter dinner at the inn where he was stay
ing; also he had a feeling that if he
himself had come up to Scotland to
fish he would much rather not be asked
out, to dinner by his landlord, since
such hospitality, if accepted, would
mean curtailment Of the cream Of the
, hospitality would be not to burden his
tenant with the necessity to make ex-
cuses. Then suddenly his name, Walter
Cochran, flashed into his mind. In any
case, he concluded. it would be kinder
not to ask Mr.. Walter Cochran to come
three miles in order to eat Scotch broth
with tired landlord.
But, on the other hand, he felt per-
He had Just met and passed him in the
village street, after coming out from
one of those cottages where a strong
young stalker of his was lying. it was
feared, at the point of death. He him
self, too, was racked with this hideous,
unnerving pain, and at the moment he
was feeling utterly dispirited and beat
en- and hopeless. Their eyes-his and
Mr.: Cochran 's-had met for a moment,
and Just for that moment, by chance no
doubt, or perhaps by that subtle intui-
ton which some people possess, Thurso
had felt suddenly soothed and quieted.
There was nothing particularly remark
able about the other. He was rather
tall, young, clean-shaven, with a pleas
ant ,boyish face, which had something
Of the prairie and the open air about
it. Yet at that moment Thurso had
felt almost irresistibly inclined to speak
to him and thank him, to tell him how
his head ached and how miserable and