Joshua Hutchinson, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.
[Illustration]
By PERCY BREBNER
To V. F. G.
A breezy morning after a night of rain. Fleecy clouds, some in massivefolds and fantastic shape, some in small half-transparent wisps likesunlit ghosts, were driven rapidly across the blue. Hurrying shadowsflecked the swelling bosom of the downs, and where the grass was longit rippled like a green sea, making rustling music. Overhead the larksfluttering upward, ever-diminishing specks to the empyrean, carolledtheir joyous song, and a thousand perfumes filled the air. It was amorning to live in, to enjoy, to take into one's lungs in deep,intoxicating draughts, until the sorrows of life and its cares wereforgotten; a morning that lent strong wings to ambition, filling thefuture with hope and the promise of realized desires.
Something of the aspect of the morning was reflected in the face ofthe man who stoutly climbed the downs against the wind. He was abovethe average height, but did not give the impression of being tall. Hisframe was well knit and muscular; strength and power of endurance abovethe common were evident in every movement; and there was a quietdetermination in his face which proclaimed him one of those who wouldbe likely to succeed in anything he undertook, no matter what dangersand difficulties might stand in his path, one who would march straightforward to his object even as he breasted the downs this morning. Mostmen would have pronounced him handsome, judging, as men ever do, bybuild and muscle; women might have hesitated to give an opinion inspite of the well-cut, clean-shaven face, and the da