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had vanished under mysterious circumstances"

"I believe you honestly would"

"You are an old misanthrope I hope some woman puts the hook into you sorouch? Soo-by?"

"You, too, Abby?"

"Oh, rot! Of course I never believed any of that twaddle Only, I've got a

sore head to-day If you knew Nora as well as I do, you'd understand"

Courtlandt walked on a little ahead of the artist, who looked up and down

the athletic forly Sometimes he loved the edy and co adventure

with no ardens

Nearly every one had heard of his exploits; but who a of the real man, so adroitly hidden under unruffled externals?

That there was adeep doithin those

powerful shoulders, he had not the least doubt He himself possessed the

quick mobile temperament of the artist, and he could penetrate but not

understand the poise assumed with such careless ease by his friend Dutch

blood had so, but there was

so more than these: he was a reversion, perhaps, to the type of man

which had made the rovers of the Lowlands feared on land and sea, now

heress, and

striving futilely to find an outlet for his peculiar energies One bit of

knowledge gratified him; he stood nearer to Courtlandt than any otherseparations had in nowise

impaired the foundations of this friendship