red when he was forty-seven and
Margaret Brandt somewhere in the neighbourhood of forty? Truly, it was
monstrous, it was abominable that such carelessness should be
permitted in the public departments!

Could Margaret have taken umbrage at anything he had said? He conned
his rough draft with solicitous care. It seemed new and strange and
crude to him. He feared at each word to come upon the one that might
have offended her. But no word, no phrase, nothing even of all that he
had left unsaid sprang up before his horrified eyes to choke him with
a sense of inadequacy, or inadvertency, or trespass.

No sleep got he that night for cudgelling his tired brains for reasons
why no answer had come from Margaret.

Could she be ill? She was well enough, two days before, to call at
Lady Elspeth's house. But, of course, even in a day one may take a
chill and be prostrated.

The possibility of that was brought home to him next morning by his
landlady's surprised stare and exclamation at sight of his face.

"Law, Mr. John!"--she had been handmaid to his mother for many years
and he was still always Mr. John to her,--"Have you got the influenza
too? Everyone seems to have it nowadays."

He reassured her on the point. But every friend he met that day
credited him with it, and suggested remedies and precautions
sufficient to have made an end of any ordinary man.

He was vexed to think his face so clear an index of his feelings, but,
truly, his spirits were none of the best and the weather was
enervatingly warm.

It was quite inconceivable to him that Margaret Brandt should, of
knowledge and intention, drop their pleasant acquaintance in this
fashion. He believed he knew her well enough to know that, even if she
had any fault to find with his letter, she would still have replied to
it, and would have delicately conveyed her feeling in her answer.

Then, either she had never received it, or, for some good reason or
other, she was unable to reply.

He went down to Melgrave Square to make sure that No. 1 was still
there. Possibly he might come across Margaret in the neighbourhood. If
he did he would know at a glance if she had received his letter.

But No. 1 offered him no explanations. It stood as usual, large and
prim and precise, the very acme of solid, sober wealth and assertive
moral rectitude. He was strongly tempted to call and ask for Miss
Brandt, but it was only ten o'clock in the morning, and the house
looked so truly