Nell of Shorne Mills

"News! There is never any news at Shorne Mills!" she said, smiling

brightly. "Nothing ever happens. Dick has shot some rabbits--and there

was a good catch of mackerel yesterday, and--that's all."

Her eyes shone up at him, and he looked into their depths. "I wish I'd

been here," he said. "But perhaps they'll have another big catch."

"Are you going to stay?"

The question sprang from her lips almost before she knew it, and she bit

them a moment after the words were spoken; for it seemed to her that he

must have noticed the eagerness, the anxiety in the query; but Drake

only thought that she had asked with some surprise.

"A--a little while," he replied.

"Mamma and Dick will be very pleased," she said, in as matter-of-fact a

tone as she could.

"I wired to Mrs. Brownie, asking her if she could put me up--old Brownie

lets some rooms, he told me----"

Her face fell for a moment.

"You are not coming to us--to The Cottage?" she said cheerily.

"No; I couldn't trespass upon Mrs. Lorton's hospitality," he replied.

"I hope you will be comfortable----" She hesitated. "Mrs. Brownie's

cottage is very small and----"

"Oh, I'm used to roughing it," he cut in; "and perhaps, when I find it

too small, you will let me come up and see you----"

"In our palatial mansion--for a change."

She was bright again, and her eyes were sparkling. After all, though he

would not be under the same roof, he would be near--would be in Shorne

Mills.

"I think I'll go down to Mrs. Brownie's and see if it is all right, and

then come up for a cup of tea, if I may," he said, as they neared The

Cottage.

He opened the gate for her; she gave him a little nod, her sweet face

radiant with the new-born happiness which suffused her whole being, and

ran in.

"Mamma--guess who has come!" she exclaimed breathlessly, as she entered

the sitting room where Mrs. Lorton was reclining on the sofa with the

_Fashion Gazette_ and a bottle of eau de Cologne beside her. "Dick, I

will give you three guesses--with a box of cigarettes as a prize," as

Dick sauntered in with the gun under his arm.

"My dear Eleanor, why this excitement?" asked Mrs. Lorton rebukingly.

"Your face is flushed, and your hat is on one side----"

"You'll have to give up drinking in the daytime, Nell," remarked Dick.

"No, mamma, the gun will not go off, because it is not loaded. I wish it

would, because I'm stone-broke and haven't any more cartridges. If I had

a sister worthy of the name, she would advance me a small sum out of her

pocket money."