ODOUR OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS

appreciatively -- " it's very nice." He sipped for a
moment or two, then : "I hear as Walter's got
another bout on," he said.

" When hasn't he ? " said the woman bitterly.

" I heered tell of him in the ' Lord Nelson '
braggin' as he was going to spend that b---- afore
he went: half a sovereign that was."

" When ? " asked the woman.

" A' Sat'day night -- I know that's true."

" Very likely," she laughed bitterly. " He gives
me twenty-three shillings."

" Aye, it's a nice thing, when a man can do
nothing with his money but make a beast of him-
self ! " said the grey-whiskered man. The woman
turned her head away. Her father swallowed the
last of his tea and handed her the cup.

" Aye," he sighed, wiping his mouth. " It's a
settler, it is ---- "

He put his hand on the lever. The little engine
strained and groaned, and the train rumbled to
wards the crossing. The woman again looked
across the metals. Darkness was settling over the
spaces of the railway and trucks : the miners, in
grey sombre groups, were still passing home. The
winding-engine pulsed hurriedly, with brief pauses.
Elizabeth Bates looked at the dreary flow of men,
then she went indoors. Her husband did not come.

The kitchen was small and full of firelight; red
coals piled glowing up the chimney mouth. All
the life of the room seemed in the white, warm
hearth and the steel fender reflecting the red fire.
The cloth was laid for tea; cups glinted in the
shadows At the back, where the lowest stairs