He would
never, never have left me so long without writing if he had been
alive," and then came a great sound of sobbing.

"Bless your kind heart, miss," said the voice of my landlady in reply,
"but you don't know as much about young gentlemen as I do. It is not
likely, if he has gone off on the razzle-dazzle, as I am sure he has,
he is going to write every post and tell you about it. Now you go off
to your ma at the hotel like a dear, and forget all about him till he
comes back--that's MY advice."

"I cannot, I cannot, Mrs. Brown. I cannot rest by day or sleep by
night for thinking of him; for wondering why he went away so suddenly,
and for hungering for news of him. Oh, I am miserable. Gully! Gully!
Come to me," and then there were sounds of troubled footsteps pacing to
and fro and of a woman's grief.

That was more than I could stand. I flung the door open, and, dirty,
dishevelled, with unsteady steps, advanced into the room.

"Ahem!" coughed Mrs. Brown, "just as I expected!"

But I had no eyes for her. "Polly! Polly!" I cried, and that dear
girl, after a startled scream and a glance to make sure it was indeed
the recovered prodigal, rushed over and threw all her weight of dear,
warm, comfortable womanhood into my arms, and the moment after burst
into a passion of happy tears down my collar.

"Humph!" quoth the landlady, "that is not what BROWN gets when he
forgets his self. No, not by any means."

But she was a good old soul at heart, and, seeing how matters stood,
with a parting glance of scorn in my direction and a toss of her head,
went out of the room, and closed the door behind her.

Need I tell in detail what followed? Polly behaved like an angel, and
when in answer to her gentle reproaches I told her the outlines of my
marvellous story she almost believed me! Over there on the
writing-desk lay a whole row of the unopened letters she had showered
upon me during my absence, and amongst them an official one. We went
and opened it together, and it was an intimation of my promotion, a
much better "step" than I had ever dared to hope for.

Holding that missive in my hand a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"Polly dear, this letter makes me able to maintain you as you ought to
be maintained, and there is still a fortnight of vacation for me.
Polly, will you marry me tomorrow?"

"No, certainly not, sir."

"Then will you marry me on Monday?"

"Do you truly, truly want me to?"

"Truly, t