new, and so
did the impertinent crimson rambler that clambered up the window frame
and spied in through the pane. It was no secret. The whole dazzling
world shared in the exquisite mystery.

Were the tale to have been put into words half its delicate beauty
would have been shattered. It was now a thing of clouds, of perfume,
of sunshine. The waves whispered together of it; the birds trilled the
story. A glance, a half-uttered sentence, the meeting of hands carried
with them great throbbing reaches of emotion that went to make up the
reality of the ephemeral drama. And then there was the tormenting,
bewitching, wretched, alluring uncertainty of it all. One could never
be sure, and in the spell of this disquietude lay half the magic.

Robert Morton speculated as to whether Willie, along with Jezebel and
the canary, had fathomed the idyl. He wondered, too, how much Snelling
suspected. The New Yorker had an irritating habit of waylaying Delight
and making pretty speeches to her, as if for the wanton pleasure of
watching the blush rise in her cheek. When it came to women there was
no denying Howard Snelling was as great an authority as at building
ships. He understood the sex and knew what pleased them, and with the
subtle art of a courtier he breathed into their ears a flattery too
delicate to be resented. Beside such an expert Bob, floundering in his
first real love affair, felt but a blunderer. Perhaps Mr. Snelling
realized this and rather enjoyed the amateur's chagrin. However that
may have been, he certainly let no opportunity slip for the display of
his proficiency. The discomfited lover fumed with jealous rage; yet on
analyzing the causes of his wrath he discovered he actually had but
scant ground for complaint. He was not engaged to Delight, and until
he was he had no claim upon her and not the smallest right in the world
to grumble if another man chose to pay her a compliment. And what were
compliments anyway? Only empty words. Yet reason as he would, he
wished Snelling twenty fathoms deep in the sea before ever he had come
to Wilton, there to haunt Willie's shop and make of himself a menace to
all tranquillity.

So the days passed in a delirious alternation of ecstasy and despair
until one morning when Mr. Snelling came bringing from Madam Lee the
long-delayed note which she had promised Bob she would send. She was
now quite strong again, she wrote, and she wished him to arrange for
his aunt,