Part 26 (1/2)

”Sometimes it may be repaired, piece by piece, but that is not your plan” Father Agustin spread out his hands ”If you build on a sound foundation, your neill stand; but the edifice of the State cannot be cemented with hatred and envy This responsibility is yours and not your enemies' But one looks to the future with hope as well as doubt”

They then discussed the landing of the next cargo, and the general course of operations, but while they plotted with Spanish astuteness Grahained that the quiet priest was the brain of the party

After a time, the boats came back for another load, and when sunset streaked the water with a lurid glow the guests took their leave and the _Enchantress_ steamed out to sea

CHAPTER XVIII

THE TEST OF LOVE

The hot su to fade when Evelyn came down the steps of a country house in northern Maine Banner's Post stood at the foot of a hillside a water echoed about its walls It belonged to Mrs Willans, Mrs

Cliffe's sister, for Willans, who had bought the house at his wife's command, seldom came there and did not count Mrs Willans wanted a peaceful retreat where she and her friends, when jaded by social activities, could rest and recuperate in the silence of the woods She had many interests and what she called duties, but she had of late felt called upon, with her sister's full approval, to arrange a suitable e for her niece Henry Cliffe was not really rich

Evelyn was dressed in the latest suht clothes becaiven her a fine color, and she looked very fresh and young by contrast with the jaded business ray suit that Evelyn had never seen and shabby leggings A creel hung round his shoulders, and he carried a fishi+ng-rod His face was lined and pale, but when they left the garden and entered the woods Evelyn was surprised to note that his thin figure hared pines

To soht be accounted for by the neutral tint of his clothes, but he soh he had once or twice gone off with an old friend on a shooting trip, she had never thought of her father as a sport

”It is curious that youto the bush,” she said

”I used to go fishi+ng when I was a boy,” Cliffe replied with a deprecatory smile ”I've never hadI' pathetic in his answer He had very few opportunities for indulging in the pastierness that showed how scarce such pleasures were His enjoyment was essentially natural; her friends'

enthusiasot up was artificial and forced They had too h

”I hope the trout will rise well,” she said ”We were surprised to hear that you were coet away for the week-end Have you been having a good tiht to like; soht, the kind of people I've been used to about aret sees that nobody is dull”

She had hadat Banner's Post, and had devoted himself to her entertainment with a frank assiduity that had roused the envy of other guests Evelyn ades, and his iven her an importance she had not always enjoyed

”And yet you're not quite satisfied?” Cliffe suggested with a shrewd glance

”Perhaps I'm not, but I don't know Is one ever satisfied?”

”One ought to be now and then when one is young Make the et, but aim at the best”

Evelyn mused for a few minutes She could treat her father with confidence He understood her, as her mother seldom did

”What is the best?” she asked

”To sooes deeper than that There's success that palls and gratification that doesn't last

One soon gets old and the values of things change; you don't want to feel, when it's too late, that there's soht have had and missed”