s appearance and the
strength of its lungs! Natural depravity, nothing else"--_puff_!

"And in the next house?"

"Thompson--oldish man--widower. Maiden sister to keep the house in
order--Thompson, too, I suspect by the look of him. Looks very sorry
for himself, poor soul!"

"What's the matter with him--rheumatism? Is he quite crippled or able
to get about?"

"Thompson? Splendid workman--agile as a boy. It was his mental
condition to which I referred!"

"And in the end house of all?"

"Don't know the name. Middle-aged couple, singularly uninteresting, and
two big hulking sons--"

Big--hulking! It was most disappointing! _No one_ was delicate! I
twisted about on my seat, and cried irritably--

"Are they _all_ well, every one of them? Are you quite sure? Are there
no invalid daughters, or crippled children, nor people like that?"

"Not that I know of, thank goodness! You don't mean to say you _want_
them to be ill?" He stared at me as if I were mad, and then suddenly
his face changed, and he said softly, "Oh, I see! You want to look
after them! That's nice of you, and it would have been uncommonly nice
for them, too; but, never fear, you will find plenty of people to help,
if that's what you want. Their troubles may not take quite such an
obvious form as crutches, but they are in just as much need of sympathy,
nevertheless. In this immediate neighbourhood, for instance--" He
paused for a moment, and I knew he was going to make fun by the twinkle
in his eye and the solemn way he puffed out the smoke. "There's--
myself!" So I just paid him back for his patronage, and led up to the
mystery by saying straight out--

"Yes, I know! I guessed by what you said about town that you had had
some disappointment. I'm dreadfully sorry, and if there's anything at
all that I can do--"

He simply jumped with surprise and stared at me in dead silence for a
moment, and then--horrid creature!--he began to laugh and chuckle as if
it was the most amusing thing in the world.

"So you have been making up stories about me, eh? Am I a blighted
creature? Am I hiding a broken heart beneath my Norfolk jacket? Has a
lovely lady scorned me and left me in grief to pine--eh, Babs? I did
not know you were harbouring such unkind thoughts of me. You can't
accuse me of showing signs of melancholy this last week, I'm sure, and
as to my remarks about town, they were founded on nothing more romantic
than my rooted objec