wn Ludgate Hill on a greasy day at noon,
with the whole road chock-a-block with traffic, lighting a pipe with a
wooden match with one hand, carrying on an animated conversation with
the other with a fare on the front seat, dropping white-hot satire on
the heads of drivers less efficient than himself, and always getting the
'bus through safely with about an inch to spare on each side.

On the other hand, he was almost entirely ignorant of Marcus Aurelius,
Henry James, Step-dancing, Titian, the Manners and Customs of Polite
Society, Factory-Girl Reclamation, Cardinal Newman, or the Art of
Self-advertisement. He said, with an entire absence of pretension, that
these things were not on his route.

When I announced our engagement the members of my family who were
present, about seventeen of them, all swooned, except dear papa, who
said in his highly-strung way that if I married anybody he would put the
R.S.P.C.A. on to me.

I said what I thought, and fled for consolation to Casey, my married
sister. But she also was discouraging.

"Marge," she said, "give it a miss. You have a rich nature, beautiful
hair, a knowledge of the world, nervous tension, some of the appearance
of education, and four pound fifteen put by in the Post Office. You must
look higher."

I have always detested scenes--which, perhaps, seems strange in a girl
as fond of the limelight as I was. I began to re-consider the question.
Accidentally, I discovered that he had a wife already. What with one
thing and another, I thought it best to write and give him up. He
immediately resigned his appointment with the London General, gave me a
long-priced certainty for the Oaks, and left for New York. When he
returned, two years later, his hair was pale green.

But if the engagement did not come off, the certainty for the Oaks did.
In consequence of this I left for Ramsgate by the "Marguerite" some days
later. Dressed? Well, you should have seen me.

It chanced that one of the passengers on the boat was Mr. Aaron Birsch.
He had been presented to me some weeks before by Mr. Bunting. I knew
that he was a turf commissioner, had speculated with success in cottage
property, and was commonly reported to be much richer than he looked.
Beyond that, I know very little of him. Apparently, however, he had made
it his business to know quite a good deal of me. Mr. Bunting was his
informant, and I had always been a quite special favourite of the
_doyen_ of the Soles.

Mr.