mnia with some one else,
and that some third person assured us that nothing but a complete
change of scene could be of any lasting benefit. And my reason assures
me that Tip and I and the telegraph operator must have been these
three, for I seem to see, as if through a dim haze, a beautiful woman
in a blue dress sitting under a fruit tree, with a dog's head in her
lap, a flaming handful of nasturtiums in her belt, and a man lying at
her feet, with his hand in hers and his eyes fixed on her face. This
could hardly have been Roger, one would think, for Roger was not a
demonstrative man, and certainly not likely to have been so under
these circumstances ... and yet, if not Roger, who could it have been?

After that I remember well enough. Caliban was to row the telegrapher
back, as he had brought him over, and as the haggard little fellow
advanced to say his good-byes, Margarita and Roger appeared from
somewhere to receive them. He shook her hand cordially and tried
honestly not to stare too admiringly at her.

"This has been a great pleasure, Mrs. Bradley, a real pleasure to me,"
he said, "aside from the romance and--and so forth, you understand. It
isn't often I can get off like this in the daytime, and I shouldn't
wonder if the air and the water and all made me sleep a little
to-night! I little thought when Mr. Bradley asked for an hour of my
time to-day that I should be going to the wedding of the Miss Prynne I
had heard so much about."

Tip and I glanced irrepressibly at each other, wondering if this
suggestion would commend itself to Roger. But he, I think, had paid no
attention to the words, and his smile was merely kindly and polite. So
the sleepless one rowed away, the richer by a box of good cigars, and
Tip and I were left to plan our own departure.

For mine, at any rate, Roger seemed in no hurry. When Tip assured him
that he must, without fail, catch the next possible train, he got a
schedule and arranged for a short drive across country to a tiny
station that profited by the summer residence of a railroad magnate,
and could connect him with an otherwise impossible express; but me he
urged to stop on in terms so unmistakably sincere that I saw he really
wanted a few more hours of my company, at least; and as I found that a
milk-train stopped at the village at ten that night, and had learned
from experience that much might be accomplished with a banknote and a
cigar and an obliging brakeman, I was glad enoug