36 TALES OF {PINK AND SILK. 



hadn't a heart. I don't grumble, you know ; I went the pace 

 since the fall of the flag, and the race is over now. We've 

 been good pals, haven't we, Charlie, ever since I joined the 

 Bays? And there's only one secret I've kept from you. 

 That I'm going to tell you now. 



" I daresay you've wondered," he went on, " why my wife 

 suddenly became such an invalid and found it necessary to 

 live in the South of France. Pshaw ! she's brutally well. She's 

 no more an invalid than you or Dennis. But I'll tell you all 

 about it. Before I met her, I was practically engaged to 

 another — you know her, Charlie, the parson's daughter at 

 Chiltern; the kindest and sweetest woman that ever lived. 

 But for that fiend, whom the law calls my wife, she might 

 have been alive now and I her husband. Poor girl, I honestly 

 believe she died of a broken heart. Thanks, old man, just 

 moisten my lips again ; the pain makes one feel a bit sick. 

 I met my wife at a Drawing Koom at Buckingham Palace. I 

 was on duty there, and I thought, as I saw her sweep down 

 the staircase, that I had never seen such a face or figure 

 before. Her eyes met mine, so blue, apparently so true ; she 

 smiled as her train caught in something and I disengaged it. 

 She passed on, and left me like one in a dream. Then I 

 thought of the dear, trustful httle face of Gladys, as I had 

 seen her" last, among her father's roses at Chiltern Rectory. 

 The one was a pretty country flower; the other a choice 

 exotic. I met the town beauty the following night at the 

 Berkeley's ball, was introduced, and danced twice with her. 

 The madness of her beauty seemed to fascinate me, but still 

 in my 'sober moments I clung to the remembrance of that 

 bright little face at Chiltern. To make a long story short, 

 Dorothy Mortimer meant from the first to marry me. Did I 

 say marry me? I should have said marry my money and 

 position .J- 4 Her beauty and soft purring ways always had a 

 hold on me fool that I was ; but she made assurance doubly 



