mehow, I feel
quite certain that, this time, I have the thing--however, I'll say
nothing. But don't you tell me not to be sanguine, or you'll put me
clean off--you know how funny I am, that way. You keep the children
quiet, and don't let me hear a sound, and you'll see--well, you'll see
what you will see." He laughed, and she laughed too. "Don't you laugh at
me! If I don't get the first prize, it'll be hard lines if I don't get
one of the three--even a hundred pounds is not to be despised."

"But, Geoffrey, what will become of your other work during those six
weeks? And you know, when you have finished a long story, you never feel
inclined to start again at once."

"Don't talk to me like that, or you'll drive me off my head. Philippa,
I've set my heart upon doing this thing--do let me do it. You don't want
me to be a penny-a-liner all my life, sweetheart, do you? By the way, I
saw _The Leviathan_ at the library. There's a first-rate story in it, by
a new man--Philip Ayre. I know good work when I see it, and that is good
work. And, do you know, it might almost be a story about us--you should
read it. It is called 'Two in One.'" Wandering hither and thither about
the room, he did not notice that his wife's face had suddenly been bent
low over her mending, and that her cheeks had paled. "Another thing, I
met old Briggs." Mr. Briggs was their landlord. "I assure you, when I
saw him coming, I was half inclined, Dick Swiveller fashion, to dodge
down some side street. I made sure he was going to dun, and that I
should have to shuffle. But, to my surprise, he was quite friendly. He
asked how you were, and how the children were, and never said a word
about the rent. So, of course, I said nothing either. I'm just going for
a stroll, and a smoke, and a think. Mind, when you go to the library,
that you don't forget to read that thing in _The Leviathan_."

When he had gone, spreading out the paper which he had brought in front
of her she began attentively to study the announcement of the _North
British Telegraph_ prize story competition. Putting down the
figures--150,000--upon a scrap of paper, she began to divide and to
sub-divide them, as if she were trying to find out exactly what they
meant. When she had finished her calculations, she continued to sit in a
brown study, quite oblivious of the heap of mending which still lay
unfinished on her knee.

"If I could only help him to win it--if I only could! Poor Geoff! The
day on w