34 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



her father, who bustled in unconscious that there 

 were strangers until he saw us. There appeared to be 

 a conspiracy of silence, for all he got by his appealing 

 look to his wife was a smile and nod Granfer's way, 

 and from there a shaky nod to where I sat. He turned 

 to me with a smile that quickly faded, took a seemingly 

 involuntary step, halted, and exclaimed, 'Why ! it's 

 George Geen over again.' He seemed quite unable to 

 take his eyes from my face until his wife said, 'This is 

 Mrs Geen, Robert.' As he shook hands with Nell, 

 he told her that I so strikingly resembled the man 

 Vvho stole his first sweetheart that for the time he 

 had been lost to all else. 



'You did not die of a broken heart,' said Nell. 



'No, Mrs Geen, it did not break for Mary, but it 

 would have done had Martha refused me/ 



'Where are you staying?' needed a repetition 

 of much that had already been said, and when we 

 told him we were depending on Bobby to take us 

 hom^e he laughed and remarked, 'Oh, we all know 

 Bobby. If you expect to get to Simonsbath to-night 

 perhaps it would be as well to see what Bobby thinks 

 about it. I'll drive you to the inn and see you off, 

 and if he is out of humour I'll take you all the way.' 



We had found Bobby most consistent in every- 

 thing that concerned the homeward journey; as 

 usual he had to be held while we seated ourselves, 

 and then started off leaving quite a trail of dust, 

 and we reached hom.e without trouble before the 

 glor^^ of the setting sun had disappeared. 



In due course letters came for us; amongst them 

 was one for my wife from her mother, with one enclosed 

 from brother Jack, posted in Melbourne, at the sight 

 of which she exclaimed : 'Jack's ahve, Phil. Fancy 

 his being alive after all these years of silence ! I m.ust 

 cry, I know I must. Oh ! fancy mother, I'm sure she 

 wants me.' 



'Steady, deai', steady. Now we shall know the 



