At Love's Cost

When she had poured out her father's coffee, she took it round to him

and let her hand rest on his shoulder lovingly; but Jason had brought

in the post-bag and Mr. Heron was unlocking it and taking out the few

letters and papers, and seemed unconscious of the little anxious

caress.

"Are there any for me, father?" she asked, lingering beside him, and

she stretched out her hand to turn the envelopes on their right side;

but he stopped her quickly and swept them together, covering them with

his long hand--the shapely Heron hand.

"No, no," he said, almost sharply; "they are all for me; they are

business letters, booksellers' catalogues, sale catalogues--nothing of

importance."

She went back to her place and he waited until she had done so before

he began to open the letters. He merely glanced at some of them, but

presently he came to one which, after a sharp, quick look at her, he

read attentively; then he returned it to its envelope and, with a

secretive movement, slipped it into the pocket of his dressing-gown.

"Yes, nothing but catalogues and bills; you'd better take them, Ida;

the bills, at any rate."

And he threw them across to her.

When she had first come home to be mistress of the Hall the bills had

overwhelmed her; they had been so many and the money to meet them had

been so inadequate; but she had soon learnt how to "finance" them, and

come to know which account must be paid at once, and which might be

allowed to stand over.

She took them now and glanced at them, and the old man watched her

covertly, with a curious expression on his face.

"I'm sure I don't know how you will pay them," he said, as if she alone

were responsible.

"I can't pay all of them at once," she replied, cheerfully. "But I can

some, and the rest must wait. I can send four--perhaps five--of the

steers to the monthly market, and then there are the sheep--Oh, father,

I did not tell; you about the gentleman I saw fishing in the dale--"

She stopped, for she saw that he was not listening. He had opened a

local paper and was reading it intently, and presently he looked up

with an eager flush on his face and a sudden lightening of the dull

eyes.

"Have you seen this--this house--they call it a palace--which that man

has built on the lake side?" he asked, his thin voice quavering with

resentment.