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Show H "GIvo up tho company." H "You'd give up the company?" H "iBlossed If I Vouldn't. You're the best com- H pany in the world." H "Give me your hand." H They shook hands. Fabian drew out a flask, H and began to uncork it. H "I'll bo better company for you than that H girl, Fabian." H "Girl?" What the devil do you mean?" H "She, Nell Barraway, was tho company I H meant, Fabe." H "Noll Barraway you meant her? Bosh! I'm H going to marry her, Henri." H "You must not, Fabe," said Henri, eagerly H clutching Fabian's sleeve. H "I must, and there's an end of it. She's the H handsomest, cleverest girl I ever saw; she's H splendid. Never lonely a minute with her." H 'Beauty and cleverness ain't everything, H Fabe." H "Isn't it though? Isn't it? You just try it." H "They ain't without goodness," Henri's voice H weakened. H That's rot. Of course it is, Henri, my dear. H If you love a woman, if she gets hold of you, H gets into your blood, loves you, so that the touch H of her Angers sets your pulses flying, you don't H care a d whether she is good or not." H "You mean whether she was good or not?" H "No, I don't. I mean is good or not. For if H she loves you, she'll travel straight for your sake. H Pshaw! You don't know anything about it." M "I know all about it." H "Know all about it! You're in love you?" fl "Yes." H Fabian sat open-mouthed for a minute. "Go- H dam!" he said. It was his one English oath. H "Is she good company?" ho asked after a H minute. H "You mean Nell Nell?" asked Fabian, in a dry, H choking voice. H "Yes, Nell. From the first time I saw her. But fl I'd cut my hand off first. I'd think of you; of our H people that have been here for two hundred BH years; of the rooms in the old house where Kg mother used to be. Look here, Fabe, you said B you'd give up her company for mine. Ifo it." H "I didn't know you meant her, Henri. Holy mm heaven, and you have got her in your blood, too!" "Yes, but I'd never marry her. She was as j bad " Hj "That's nothing to me, Henri," said Fabian, M "but something else is. Here you are now. Hj I'll stick to my bargain." His face showed pale B in the moonlight. "If you'll drink with me, do as Kj I do, go where I go, play the Jovil when I play HH it and never squeal, never hang back, I'll give her M up. But I have got to have you got to have you H all the time, everywhere, hunting, drinking, or let- iH ting alone. You'll see me out, for you're stronger, M had less of it. I'm for the little low bye-yearly. HI Stop the horses!" Henri stopped them, and they got out. They were just opposite the limekiln, and they had to go a few hundred yards before they came to the bridge to cross the river to their home. The light of the fire shone in their faces as Fabian handed tho flask to Henri, and said: "Let's drink to it, Henri. You half of that, and me half." He was deadly pale. Henri drank to the finger-mark set, and then Fabian lifted the flask to his lips. ' Good-bye, Nell," he said. "Here's to the good times we've had!" He emptied the flask, t id threw it over the bank into the burning lime, id the old lime burner, being half asleep, did not see or hear. The next day they went on a long hunting expedition, ex-pedition, and the next month Nell Barraway left for Montreal, pale and hollow-eyed. Henri kept to his compact, drink for drink, sport for sport. One year the crops were sold before they were reaped, horse and cattle went little by little, then came the mortgage, and still Henri never wavered, never weakened, in spite of the cure, and all others. The brothers were always together, and never, from first to last, did Henri lose his temper, or openly lament that ruin was coming surely on them. What money Fabian wanted he got. The cure's admonitions ad-monitions availed nothing, for (Fabian would go his gait. The end came on the very spot where the compact had been made, for, passing the limekiln one dark night, as he and Henri rode home together, his horse shied, the bank of the river gave way, and with a startled "Henri!" Fabian and his horse were gone into the river below. Next month the farm and all were sold, Henri succeeded the old lime-burner at his post, drank no more ever, a.i lived his life in sight of the old home. |