Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/361

Rh with a large hole in the heel; there had been an attempt to draw it together by a bit of string. "I have never seen anything so pathetic."

"You see what a man is without a woman." He was watching her, and she froze.

"What answer am I to take back to my president?" she said.

"I'll tell you," he answered, "if you will come outside; it's so untidy and dreary in here."

"Why don't you discharge your servant?" she said, with a laugh; "it's the woman at home who is the cause of your discomfort."

"I daren't." He smiled. "I am afraid; and if I were not I do not know who I should get in her place."

She turned her face away from him. "Why do you not capture one of your ideal home women, and set her by your hearth?"

"I'll tell you." He looked keenly at her. "Because you progress women have claimed her and are too strong for me."

Barbara shivered as with a sudden chill. She did not answer and hurried along by his side. He brought her away from the house