his lips were sealed now. Why should he not enjoy the effect he was
creating?

It was with a measured tread, as yesterday with Zuleika, that he entered
the avenue of elms. The throng streamed past from behind him, parting
wide, and marvelling as it streamed. Under the pall of this evil evening
his splendour was the more inspiring. And, just as yesterday no man had
questioned his right to be with Zuleika, so to-day there was none to
deem him caparisoned too much. All the men felt at a glance that
he, coming to meet death thus, did no more than the right homage to
Zuleika--aye, and that he made them all partakers in his own glory,
casting his great mantle over all commorients. Reverence forbade them to
do more than glance. But the women with them were impelled by wonder to
stare hard, uttering sharp little cries that mingled with the cawing of
the rooks overhead. Thus did scores of men find themselves shamed like
our friend Harold. But this, you say, was no more than a just return for
their behaviour yesterday, when, in this very avenue, so many women were
almost crushed to death by them in their insensate eagerness to see Miss
Dobson.

To-day by scores of women it was calculated not only that the velvet of
the Duke's mantle could not have cost less than four guineas a yard, but
also that there must be quite twenty-five yards of it. Some of the fair
mathematicians had, in the course of the past fortnight, visited the
Royal Academy and seen there Mr. Sargent's portrait of the wearer, so
that their estimate now was but the endorsement of an estimate already
made. Yet their impression of the Duke was above all a spiritual one.
The nobility of his face and bearing was what most thrilled them as they
went by; and those of them who had heard the rumour that he was in love
with that frightfully flashy-looking creature, Zuleika Dobson, were more
than ever sure there wasn't a word of truth in it.

As he neared the end of the avenue, the Duke was conscious of a thinning
in the procession on either side of him, and anon he was aware that not
one undergraduate was therein. And he knew at once--did not need to look
back to know--why this was. SHE was coming.

Yes, she had come into the avenue, her magnetism speeding before her,
insomuch that all along the way the men immediately ahead of her looked
round, beheld her, stood aside for her. With her walked The MacQuern,
and a little bodyguard of other blest acquaintances; and behind h