THE SILVER FOX 49 



Creed. The Honourable Charles Ilenick 

 was an elderly and prosperous bachelor, 

 whose blameless life was devoted to two 

 pursuits, gardening and writing contro- 

 versial letters to the Church papers. He 

 was a small, dry gentleman, very clean, and 

 not in the least deaf. Strangers always 

 experienced a slight shock on finding that 

 he was not a clergyman. 



Slaney put away her best hat, and felt 

 that there were yet many hours till bed- 

 time. Those who lay out with a confident 

 hand the order of a day's events would do 

 well to prepare also an alternative. 



Yet Fate had, after all, reserved a blessing^ 

 Slaney had scarcely settled herself by the 

 fire, when she heard Lady Susan's voice in 

 the hall, and following on it the voices of 

 Hugh and Mr. Glasgow. The afternoon 

 leaped again into life and meaning. As 

 she came into the lamp-lit hall to meet her 

 visitors, Lady Susan and Major Bunbury 

 realized in their diff'erent ways that she was 

 better-looking than they had believed. Her 



