Waiting For A Bang

We had been staying in Wales for ever so long - weeks and weeks - an awfnl time it had seemed to me, drifting aimlessly about, Maud and her husband - Mand is my sister, by the way, and newly married - professing to be almost as much "gone on" the scenery as they really were on each other. So yon can easily guess what that meant for poor me until George joined us. The chief, nay, the only, difficulty, was George. He did not quite "catch on." He was very agreeable and very nice, but apparently quite satisfied to enjoy himself with us, and then go back to work, as he playfully phrased it, "a giant refreshed," and could not be got to see that there was anything more serious in life than airulessly frivoling about. We had done Snowdon, and really what with the electric light and the crowd, and all that, it was not half bad. Quite cheerfnl, yon know, and civilized. Indeed, I never should have gone without. After that, I think - yes, it was George snggested our going to Bethesda. Not that anyof uswere at all interested in slates or quarries, only it was somewhere to go and an escuse for a drive. George ordered the carriage and made all the arrangements. He had been there before, so knew all about the "show," as he said, and we left everything to him. Altogether it was so etnpid and so dnll that, but for what Maud called the "off chance" of George, I never could even that began to look desperate. Even have stood it as long as I did, though Maud began to lose heart. "And yet I don 't know how it is. You are looking vour best," and she eyed me critically, "and he seems quite fond of yon in his way. " But there was the hitch. His way was not ours. Apparently he was no fonder of me than of any other girl, or of Mand herself. We saw the men lay down their tools, and, as thongh they had been so many rabbits, disappear into their holes, and after a few moments of suspense there were several loud explosione, and we were told that the dynamite had done its level best, or its best, to level the place, and we were warned most solemnly that once we were inside the works - we had only been on the onter edge then - wbenever the whistle sounded we must get into the nearest shelter and not come out on any account until after we had heard the "bang. " It was highly exciting at the first, but by repetition even danger grew monotonous and began to pall, and we strolled on, George and I, and left the foreman to look after the otbers as best he could. "Maud and Fred seem very much attached, don't you think?" said George as we looked back just before passing round a curve and caught sight of them with their arras round each other's waists, ostensibly listening to the foreman 's impvoving discourse, but really, as we knew from experience, far, far away. "They are indeed," I answered, with a sigh that might have meant anything from envy to despair. I realized with a blush, according to the interpreter and the iuterpretation. And we strolled on again to a part of the workings rather screened by that pyramid left standing in the middle. "I suppose it is not possible to get lost ourselves?" I began presently. "Bless me, no - you mean with this Jack in the box arrangement - oh, dear, no. One has only to pop out, and you can see all over the show, but stop in and - but there's that infer - I mean that blessed thiug again. I suppose we had better"- "Oh, yes; we must really go in. AH the men are off already, and if tney do it, who are so used to it and know, we ghould be very foolish to risk - see, there's a refuge herel" And we went inside. "After all, it is rather jolly in here nt of the sun. Beastly hot outside, don't you think? Sightseeing and all that, it gets to be rather - rather" - 'A bore, do yoa mean?" I interposed. "Doesn't that depend" - "Oh, of conrse, and I don't think I meant - you see, it's this way." And he lit a cigar. "It's the haviag to see things that's the bore. Take you and me, for instance. We could have been jr.st aa jolly and far more coinfortable ever there at the inn, or, in fact, anywhere. ' ' "Are you so dreadfully uncornfortable herer" I asked dismally. "By no means. Quite otherwise, I assure you - you don't mind my smoking, I know - but I've often thought that by far the best way to go sightseeing wonld be to leave the sights alone. " "But does not ranch depend upon one's - er - companion?" I asked, not more doubtfully than I feit. "We - that ís, you" - "I see what you mean. Certainly we should be thrown back very much on each other, but that's all right, you know, with people who aie properly churnmy. " "Do you mean"; - "No, uot Mand and Fred. They are almost too much so. They miss nearly all that's goiug on, and so don't get the best out of it, whereas you and I understand each other and can get along splendidly without - without - Confounded long while the bang this time, isn't it? Wonder if it evez' naisses firel How would you care for a flat such as this?'1 I must have looked puzzled, for he ■went on hurriedly: "No, I don't mean the 'flat' ycra mean, so yon need not look severe. I mean one room, and all that sort of thing," he flnished vaguely. ' ' Why, ' ' I began nervously. ' ' I should think it would be rather - nice, but" - "Cramped!" he interposed quickly. "Yes, I knew you wonld say that." I said I supposed he was only chaflBng and did not mean anything. "Oh, dear, no. It's only my way ! But it is curious - that what's 'er name must certainly have missed fire. " "You know the man said we were not on any account to etir until after the explosión." "Oh, just as you like. I'm all right, only I thought - Mand and Fred, yon know - but no doubt they will be waiting, too, though, I suppose, they wonld say they were only one, andit is we who were the 'two. ' " "Does he think I am trying to keep him here on purpose?" I wondered. "You quite understand, " Iexplained; "it is not that I want to stop" - "Oh, I quite understand, and I could hardly expect that," he assented pleasantly. "But you know wecannot possiblygo until after - after" - ■ "No, I daré say yon are right. It would be rather awkward, I dare say, to go out and find ourselves the center of a small ernption. What a 'slatiag' we ehould get!" "Oh, there it is, confonnd it!" we exclaimed together as a tremendons explosión announced the possibility of our release, and forthwith we stepped on to the terrace outside. "Yon seem awfully delighted to get crat, " said Qeorge rather pointedly, and I supposed he meant it for sarcasm, but I couïd not resent it or say I was not. "One eau breathe more freely now that the - the explosión has come off!" was all I could say. Just then caine Mand. "Oh, there you are!" Whereonearth, or nnder it, have you been?" And seeing our confusión she was misled into adding, "We began to think you must have run off with her." This, with would be archness, was to George. But this was too rnuch. "No, by Jovel I wish I had! Factis, Mand, I - I'm an awfnl fooi ! To think of wasting such a chance! We' ve been shut np there two blessed hours, and I told yon I'd something very particular toask Edith. " "Well, " she replied, looking dubiously at me. "It isn't well. Ihaven't been able to say a word. Yon will just have to ask her for me, and that's a fact. Whenever I try to come to the point, she either crashes me or freezes me, and I've beea talking the most awful drivel you ever beard. ' ' "Then why didn't you come out?" "We were waiting for the explosión, don't yon know, and I - I couldu't explode. ': Wherenpon Mand bnrst out langhing, and I conld not for my life think why. "But for me there would have been no explosión. When the last whistle sonnded, the men finished work for the day. They all went home. We thought you must have gone, tor, at first, while as to flnding yon - well, it wonld have taken weeks. But I guessed how you were occupied" - here George groaned aloud - "eo by way of ronsing yon I got the foreraan to ruake another bang, just as I shall have to" - She looked wickedly at George, then ran away. And at that he exploded, and out it carne with a rush - how he had been dying for days to ask me, just what I had been dying for days to hear, only I would not have him know it for the