Tales and Fantasies

ABOUT half-past ten it was John's brave good fortune to offer his arm to Miss Mackenzie, and escort her home.

The night was chill and starry; all the way eastward the trees of the different gardens rustled and looked black.

Up the stone gully of Leith Walk, when they came to cross it, the breeze made a rush and set the flames of the street-lamps quavering; and when at last they had mounted to the Royal Terrace, where Captain Mackenzie lived, a great salt freshness came in their faces from the sea.

These phases of the walk remained written on John's memory, each emphasised by the touch of that light hand on his arm; and behind all these aspects of the nocturnal city he saw, in his mind's-eye, a picture of the lighted drawing-room at home where he had sat talking with Flora; and his father, from the other end, had looked on with a kind and ironical smile.

John had read the significance of that smile, which might have escaped a stranger.

Mr. Nicholson had remarked his son's entanglement with satisfaction, tinged by humour; and his smile, if it still was a thought contemptuous, had implied consent.