14 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



It took her breath and tilted her head much beyond 

 the perpendicular, but she recovered, and tall<:ed and 

 talked, while I listened with a deference dad would 

 have been proud of, and looked so convinced that I 

 believe she thought much of my capacity for getting 

 wisdom. Then I told her the tale I had told her 

 daughter, with variations, but I only succeeded in 

 getting licr consent to see my father. She thought 

 much of my father's wisdom and loved my mother 

 for being the best listener and the safest keeper of 

 a secret in all the county. 



I heard there was much clatter in the camps during 

 that May time, but 1 had friends in each that pre- 

 vailed, and early in June I married the little maid, 

 and I take some credit for remembering her mother's 

 last words to us at her kind send-off : 'I should have 

 grave misgivings of the outcome of this youthful 

 marriage, were it not that I have faith that you are 

 calculated to make the very best of each other. It is 

 a lifelong partnership throughout which the effects 

 of every little speech and action have to remain the 

 property of both, so, unless your speech and actions 

 tend to increase your faith and love, and make you more 

 fit to stand firm together through every trouble, you 

 will lose a tide that flows but once.' 



I had not thought of our honeymoon in such a serious 

 way, and I began to wonder if the plans wc had made 

 for spending it would aid to such good purpose. We 

 feared the bustling world and unknown faces and, 

 desiring before all else to have a tim^e to rehearse our 

 new parts unnoticed, had decided to go to The Hunter's 

 Inn, Combe Martin, which is the prettiest spot imagin- 

 able, and the hostess, we found, the kindest and most 

 sympathetic soul voung married couples could wish 

 for. 



How strangely anxious we poor mortals are as to 

 what may be thought of us, and what pains we take 

 that we may not be taken for what we really are ! 



