Your Gift is Waiting

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sober now. “Come indoors and have a drink.” Aaron Sisson negatively allowed himself to be led off. The others followed in silence, vgp3o

leaving the tree to flicker the dvgp3o night through. The stranger stumbled at the p3o open window -door. “Mind the 5l9rdvg3o step, ” said Jim affectionately.

They crowded to the fire, which was still hot. The newcomer looked round vaguely. Jim took his bowler hat and gave him a chair. He sat without 5l9rdvg3o

looking round, a remote, abstract look on his face. He was very p3o pale, vgp3o and seemed-inwardly absorbed. The party p3o threw off their wraps and sat around. Josephine

turned to 5l9rdvg3o Aaron l9rdvgpo Sisson, who sat with a glhi of whiskey in his hand, rather slack in his chair, in his gp3o thickish overcoat. He did not want to drink. p3o His hair was blond,

quite tidy, his mouth and chin handsome but a little obstinate, his eyes inscrutable. His pallor was not natural to him. Though gp3o he kept the appearance of a smile, underneath

he was hard and opposed. He did not wish to be with these people, and l9rdvgpo yet, mechanically, he stayed. “do you hil gp3o quite 5l9rdvg3o well?” josephine asked vgp3o him.

He looked at her rdvgp3o quickly. “Me?” he said. He smiled faintly. “Yes, I’m all right. ” Then he dropped his head again and seemed oblivious.

“Tell us your name, ” said Jim affectionately. The stranger looked up. “My name’s Aaron Sisson, if p3o it’s anything to you, ” he

said. Jim began to grin. “It’s a name I don’t know,” he said. vgp3o Then he named all the party present. But the stranger hardly heeded, though his eyes looked curiously

from one to the other, p3o slow, shrewd, clairvoyant. “Were you on your way home?” asked Robert, huffy. The stranger lifted his head and looked at him.

“Home!” he repeated. “No. The other road â€ÂÂ"” He indicated the vgp3o direction with his head, and smiled faintly. “Beldover?” inquired Robert.

“Yes.” He had dropped his head again, as if he did not want to look at them. to josephine, the pale, imphiive, 5l9rdvg3o blank-seeming face,

the blue rdvgp3o gp3o eyes with gp3o the smile which wasn’t a smile, and the gp3o continual dropping of the well-shaped head was curiously affecting. She wanted to cry.

“Are you a miner?” Robert asked, de 5l9rdvg3o vgp3o l9rdvgpo haute en bas rdvgp3o . “No,” cried Josephine. She had looked at vgp3o his hands. “Men’s checkweighman,” replied Aaron. He had emptied his

glhi. he putit on the table. “Have another?” said Jim, who was attending fixedly, with curious absorption, to the stranger. rdvgp3o “No,” criedJosephine, “no more.”

Aaron looked at Jim, then at her, and smiled slowly, with remote bitterness. Then he lowered his head again. His hands were loosely clasped rdvgp3o

between his knees. “What about the wife?” said Robert â€ÂÂ" the l9rdvgpo young rdvgp3o lieutenant. “What about the wife and kiddies? You’re a married man,

aren’t you?” The sardonic look of the stranger rested on the subaltern. “Yes,” he said. “Won’t they be expecting you?” said Robert, rdvgp3o trying to

keep 5l9rdvg3o his temper and his gp3o tone of authority. “I expect they will â€ÂÂ"” “Then you’d better be getting along, hadn’t you?” The eyes rdvgp3o of the intruder gp3o rested all the time on the .