THE COMPLETE JIM MAITLAND SERIES. H. C. McNeile / Sapper

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СКАЧАТЬ a moment, "I feel it horribly, that I couldn't fight my own battles for myself. It was fine of you to take that swine on—fine!"

      Jim poured out the champagne.

      "I don't profess that I'd have done it five years ago or even tonight if Ruth hadn't been there," he remarked quietly.

      And then he smiled suddenly.

      "Yes—I would. Your going for him as you did was a darned sight better than my show. We can't all be made big, old chap."

      He held out his sound hand.

      "John," he said, "shake. I haven't loved you much for the past seven years. In fact I haven't loved you at all. I thought—well, I thought lots of things at the time. But the years have healed, and—" He turned to the girl. "Is it well, Ruth, with you?"

      "Yes, Jim, very well," she answered gently. "My dear, I'm sorry. But it was because you thought, and let me see you thought, that it was owing to John being a duke one day, that I was annoyed."

      Jim nodded thoughtfully.

      "I was a fool," he said quietly. "Still," he added whimsically, "perhaps it was as well. I've had seven good years in the edge of beyond."

      "You're very rude," laughed the girl. "We'll have to find you a wife now, Jim."

      "You preferred your blessed old John James," Jim said, "and she thinks I'm a cur. She told me so."

      "Then she must be mad," said Ruth indignantly. "Where is she, Jim?"

      "In England somewhere."

      "Then come home and stop with us and look for her."

      Jim laughed. "I don't know about that, but if I come back I'll spend a few days at the ancestral seat if you'll have me."

      "If you don't," cried John James, "you'll have to fight me, my boy. And in the meantime, Ruth, kiss him again."

      "I was just going to," said his wife.

      And she did.

      "You'll come, Jim," she repeated. "And Mr. Leyton too."

      "Shall we go back to England, Dick?" he said with a little laugh.

      "The one sure thing," I remarked, "is that if we decide to, we shan't."

      "You see our habits, Ruth," he said. "We're dreadful people to have about the house. Anyway I don't know what you think, Dick, but we might take the first step on the journey in the near future. My unalterable conviction is that gold mining at a hundred and ten in the shade is an overrated amusement."

      And at that we left it.

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