TO-MORROW
Page: 8

All at once over that man's face there came an ex-
pression of horror and incredulity, as though he
had seen a crack open out in the firmament.

"You--you--you don't think he's drowned!"

For a moment he seemed to her ready to go out
of his mind, for in his ordinary state she thought
him more sane than people gave him credit for.
On that occasion the violence of the emotion was
followed by a most paternal and complacent re-
covery.

"Don't alarm yourself, my dear," he said a lit-
tle cunningly: "the sea can't keep him. He does
not belong to it. None of us Hagberds ever did
belong to it. Look at me; I didn't get drowned.
Moreover, he isn't a sailor at all; and if he is not a
sailor he's bound to come back. There's nothing
to prevent him coming back. . . ."

His eyes began to wander.

"To-morrow."

She never tried again, for fear the man should
go out of his mind on the spot. He depended on
her. She seemed the only sensible person in the
town; and he would congratulate himself frankly
before her face on having secured such a level-
headed wife for his son. The rest of the town, he
confided to her once, in a fit of temper, was certainly
queer. The way they looked at you--the way they
talked to you! He had never got on with any one
in the place. Didn't like the people. He would
not have left his own country if it had not been
clear that his son had taken a fancy to Colebrook.

She humoured him in silence, listening patiently
by the fence; crocheting with downcast eyes.
Blushes came with difficulty on her dead-white
complexion, under the negligently twisted opu-
lence of mahogany-coloured hair. Her father was
frankly carroty.

She had a full figure; a tired, unrefreshed face.
When Captain Hagberd vaunted the necessity and
propriety of a home and the delights of one's own
fireside, she smiled a little, with her lips only. Her
home delights had been confined to the nursing of
her father during the ten best years of her life.

A bestial roaring coming out of an upstairs win-
dow would interrupt their talk. She would begin
at once to roll up her crochet-work or fold her sew-