pression.

"Ah, you think I don't want to work!" he said--"There you're wrong! But
I haven't many years of life in me,--there's not much time left to do
what I have to do,--and I must get on."

"Get on, where?"

"To Cornwall."

"Whereabouts in Cornwall?"

"Down by Penzance way."

"You want to start off on the tramp again at once?"

"Yes."

"All right, you must do as you like, I suppose,"--and Miss Tranter
sniffed whole volumes of meaning in one sniff--"But Farmer Joltram told
me to say that if you wanted a light job up on his place,--that's about
a mile from here,--- he wouldn't mind giving you a chance. You'd get
good victuals there, for he feeds his men well. And I don't mind
trusting you with a bit of gardening--you could make a shilling a day
easy--so don't say you can't get work. That's the usual whine--but if
you say it----"

"I shall be a liar!" said Helmsley, his sunken eyes lighting up with a
twinkle of merriment--"And don't you fear, Miss Tranter,--I _won't_ say
it! I'm grateful to Mr. Joltram--but I've only one object left to me in
life, and that is--to get on, and find the person I'm looking for--if I
can!"

"Oh, you're looking for a person, are you?" queried Miss Tranter, more
amicably--"Some long-lost relative?"

"No,--not a relative, only--a friend."

"I see!" Miss Tranter smoothed down her neatly fitting plain cotton gown
with both hands reflectively--"And you'll be all right if you find this
friend?"

"I shall never want anything any more," he answered, with an
unconsciously pathetic tremor in his voice--"My dearest wish will be
granted, and I shall be quite content to die!"

"Well, content or no content, you've got to do it," commented Miss
Tranter--"And so have I--and so have all of us. Which I think is a pity.
I shouldn't mind living for ever and ever in this world. It's a very
comfortable world, though some folks say it isn't. That's mostly liver
with them though. People who don't over-eat or over-drink themselves,
and who get plenty of fresh air, are generally fairly pleased with the
world as they find it. I suppose the friend you're looking for will be
glad to see you?"

"The friend I'm looking for will certainly be glad to see me," said
Helmsley, gently--"Glad to see me--glad to help me--glad above all
things to love me! If this were not so, I should not trouble to search
for my friend at all."

Miss Tranter fixed her eyes full upon him while he thus spoke. They were
sharp