The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-17
By Philip Gibbs
Hush" said the girl in whisper
 Anhrnm snransc m with all hi $

Hush" said the girl in a whisper,
 Aubrey sprang up. with all his senses strained to listen.
 It was but q moment or two be- fore the door opened, and Harry Trant came in with q heavy tread. His face was very white cd his eyes burnt like coals, but he smiled as he looked from the girl he loved to the boy for whom he had toiled and scraped
 It's dangerous to sit with an open window" he said quietly.
 Something in his face, something In his voice, told them that he had over heard.
 For a few moments there was utter silence in the room, one of those spells of silence in which men iVd women hear the voices of their own souls, in which hearts are broken, in which life achieves some great act of renunciation, of sacrifice, or Of splendor
 It was Aubrey whose stanmered words first stabbed into the silence and broke it's spell.
 How much did you hear?'
 Everything" said Henry Trant, still with that dl;eer flickering smile on his dead white face,
 Beryl rose from her chair and went over to him and clasped him by the arm. She was weeping now.
 My dear!' she cried. My dear: Forgive mel
 Aubrey stood like man guilty or crime, caught red handed. He spoke in d hoarse whisper.
 I'm sorry, old man.
 Henry Trant stood, very stiff and still, with the girl still claspng his arm. He did not answef either of them. He gazed round the room, all ] he emil Ia 6n face as though it were an altered place, strange to him.
 "1 tried to play the game" whis- pered Aubrey.
 We could not help ourselves" said i l3eryl. But it won't make any dif- ference to you, Harry. l shall go on loving you
 And am off tomorrow" said Au i brey, by the first train
 Henry Trant laughed, very quietly.
 My dearS," he said. T am glad [ | played the eavesdropper. It has saved us all from making mistakes whica | could never be put right afterwards. It has taught me to see the truth of i things For three months now I've 1 been living in a fools paradise in q glorious dream I believed that | i had grown young again; that, after all, had not been withered and 1 crusted by this school mastering job; i that life had something more to offer me than Latin exercises abominabiy done by stupid schoolboys. Good God. i | believed that l might be the hus l band of girl in the spring time of and l see the reality of things, the reality of myself. l am just a dull old fogy. l should have been guilty of d crime if l had married this child l here. l have no right to her. It is only youth that has right to youth. | A,,b mine. When you came here with your splendid youth I might have known. Thank God l know now. before it's too late."
 Harry" cried Beryl Furnaby. Her face was upon his breast and she was weeping there.
 Henry Trant put his arms about the girl whose lover he had been. kissed her on the forehead. Then he led her over to Aubrey and stretched out his hand to his brother, who grasped 1t in strong and elining grip.
 It's getting late" he said in q placid voice, "r think you had bet ter take Beryl across the quadrangle. old chap. The Head will be quoting the rules of the house."
 They held on to him. They stam- mered out words of self-excuse, Of desire for self-sacrifice, of gratitude. of reverence.
 But he joined their hands and laughed In his whimsical way.
 Good heavens, my dears, shali never get through those Latin exer- cises"
 Beryl Furnaby put her tear-stained face up and kissed him on the cheek, as a daughter might kiss her father. Then with her hand clasped in Au- brey's she went out of the room with the boy she loved. Presently their footsteps sounded In the quadrangle.
 Henry Trant went to his desk and sat down heavily. He laid his arms down across the desk, and put his head down upon his arms, and groaned like a stricken thing. But 1t was only for few minutes, while the clock licked in the silence of the room, reckoning the seconds which l pass when mans heart breaks
 He raised his head again, fum- hled for his pen, dipped 1t in the red ink, and wrote the word Fair across Latin exercise.