DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 13 



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 we 

 had made for spending it would aid to such good 

 purpose. We feared the bustling world and un- 

 known faces and, desiring before all else to have 

 a time to rehearse our new parts unnoticed, had 

 decided to go to The Hunter's Inn, Combe Martin, 

 which is the prettiest spot imaginable and the 

 hostess, we found, the kindest and most sym- 

 pathetic soul young 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 ! Nell had done all she could to appear as 

 little like a schoolgirl as was possible, and she was 

 much helped to look a real matron by what she had 

 chosen to go away in, particularly so by the pret- 

 tiest straw bonnet, with strings tied in a bow 

 beneath the chin, that ever a woman wore. I, 

 having but the slightest downy tint of hair upon my 

 face, to pull at or to twist, except my eyebrows, to 

 which my fingers wandered, tried to think of some- 

 thing else, a cough or trick of speech, to show that 

 I was older than I looked ; but it was all in vain, 

 and we had to submit to the motherly treatment of 

 our kind hostess, who placed before us creams and 

 junkets, cakes and jams, in unlimited array, while 

 the food for a man and woman was meagreness 

 itself. Still we came better through the ordeal than 



