that Lavender's affection, so
far from waning, engrossed more and more of his thought and his
time; and he listened with unfailing good-nature and patience to the
perpetual talk of his friend about Sheila and her home, and the future
that might be in store for both of them. If he had accepted half the
invitations to dinner sent down to him at the Board of Trade by his
friend, he would scarcely ever have been out of Lavender's club. Many
a long evening they passed in this way--either in Lavender's rooms
in King street or in Ingram's lodgings in Sloane street. Ingram quite
consented to lie in a chair and smoke, sometimes putting in a word of
caution to bring Lavender back from the romantic Sheila to the real
Sheila, sometimes smiling at some wild proposal or statement on the
part of his friend, but always glad to see that the pretty idealisms
planted during their stay in the far North were in no danger of dying
out down here in the South. Those were great days, too, when a letter
arrived from Sheila. Nothing had been said about their corresponding,
but Lavender had written shortly after his arrival in London, and
Sheila had answered for her father and herself. It wanted but a very
little amount of ingenuity to continue the interchange of letters
thus begun; and when the well-known envelope arrived high holiday was
immediately proclaimed by the recipient of it. He did not show Ingram
these letters, of course, but the contents of them were soon bit
by bit revealed. He was also permitted to see the envelope, as if
Sheila's handwriting had some magical charm about it. Sometimes,
indeed, Ingram had himself a letter from Sheila, and that was
immediately shown to Lavender. Was he pleased to find that these
communications were excessively business-like--describing how the
fishing was going on, what was doing in the schools, and how John
the Piper was conducting himself, with talk about the projected
telegraphic cable, the shooting in Harris, the health of Bras, and
other esoteric matters?

Lavender's communications with the King of Borva were of a different
nature. Wonderful volumes on building, agriculture and what not,
tobacco hailing from certain royal sources in the neighborhood of
the Pyramids, and now and again a new sort of rifle or some fresh
invention in fishing-tackle,--these were the sort of things that found
their way to Lewis. And then in reply came haunches of venison,
and kegs of rare whisky, and skins of wild an