The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-02-24

moon, her hair looked like crest of foam.
 She had not heard him come and, afraid of startling her, he stopped and attempted to light c cigarette. He knew exactly wher the abortive spurt of flame caught her gae and he threw away the cigarette and moved nearer.
 "Barbara!"
 "Who-who is it?" And then as though ashamed of the evas- ion-"You are Farrell Armitage know"
 The sound of the clear, sof! voice speaking through that salty dusk, sent the blood to his tenn pies. Roughly, he took control oi himself. There was so much to be said and he must not keep her long on this spray-swept shore He noticed that she had a tweed coat on, not very heavy.
 Turn your collar up," he said
 I'm not cold. I came dowr here because I wanted to feel the wind and the spray before I ge away from the west country. Tn starting work in London tomor- row."
 You are so elusive" he said his voice strange in his ears. How do you manage to be here by the sea when you live neither in Tox- eter nor Kings Mallard?"
 But don't you know I'm stay ing with MT. Frere at Upper Nal lard?"
 Armitage laughed. At the old well-loved Vicarage. the one place he had not thought of T didn't realize you and the vi- car were such friends" he said T never imagined you'd be there. J
 We aren't, though I've known him all my life. in a way. You see, when I'd done the alterations at South-the-Water and finished the Toxeter house and sold it l had no home And then I met MT. Frere in Toxeter and he said l must come and stir the creatures in his pond. I was afraid I should be a nuisance to him but he said I shouldn't, so long as I didn't make him drink tea. So I'm al- ways out for tea. But, Farrell
 Barbara"
 "If the vicar didn't tell you was down here by the sea, how could you possibly have known?' T shall not tell you that until I am quite certain that you will believe me"
 He thought that the color swept her face but the moonlight was treacherous. The end of her scarf touched his shoulder. He held it gently.
 You didn't marry Mark" he said very low.
 You didn't cheat,p she said on quick timid breath. I've been trying to find courage to apolo- gize for accusing you of it, but ] simply couldn't write. And thought it might be easier if I met you Tt was Poole you heard com menting on Lodely," he said after silence. ITO Mclaughlin, the cartoonist. Apparently Leila Cane told Lodely Chat you were down. stairs but went home directly af- forwards. When I heard that you had come to my house." his voice thickened, alone, late at night and had not received the barest sign of common hospitality, you who ought to have been carried over my threshold" He checked himself as she took a startled ster backwards.
 But it wasn't anybody's fault, she protested, except Marks. Nc harm was done"
 MO harm. Since you didn't marry Mark. I had no means of finding out whether you and he were married for some days"
 But why not? Mark would have told you that, surely?" Mark" he said slowly, ehad gone to a hospital at three o'clock on that same day that you wrote to me. Sir Robert PhiIhay was there. I'd brought him down from Scotland by easy stages. Just got him there in comfortable time He's old, you see, and not too strong"
 "Philhay, the bone-setter?" Yes. He had a look at Mark and said he thought he could do something. So Mark was put un- der an anaesthetic there and then and Sir Robert rearranged most of his spine"
 "Mark-Mark didn't tell me that there was any question of such a thing"
 Tn three months he'll be allow cd to move, Barbara. And Sir Robert says that within the year