He always hides his feelings,' said Camilla. 'This will be a blow for
him!'

'How?'

'Didn't he tell you he was most violently in love with me in Paris?'

'He did not,' said Hugo. 'Did he tell _you_?'

'No, of course not. He was far too chivalrous for that. It would have
seemed like taking advantage of my situation to force me into a
marriage.'

'How do you know he was violently in love with you, bright star?' Hugo
demanded in that amiably malicious tone which he could never withstand
the temptation to employ.

'My precious boy,' replied Camilla, 'how _does_ a woman know these
things?'

And she came over and kissed Hugo.

'You shall talk to him first,' she said. 'I'll join you later.'

'Did he ever commit sublime follies for you,' Hugo asked, detaining her
hand, 'as I did when I shut up the entire place because I thought you
looked exhausted one hot morning?'

She bent over him.

'Darcy is incapable of any folly in regard to women,' she said. 'That is
one reason why we should never have suited each other, he and I. A fool
should always marry a fool. Consider _my_ folly when I came back to work
in your Department 42 simply because I could not forget your masterful
face. Wasn't that also sublime?'

'You never told me--'

'But you guessed.'

'Perhaps.'

She withdrew her hand, and then that delicious swish of skirts which
Simon's imagination had foretold thrilled Hugo with delight. He launched
a kiss towards her as she vanished.

'We are all to be heartily congratulated,' said Darcy, somewhat
astonished when Hugo had put him abreast of the times. 'At one period I
suspected that you were going to make a match of it, and then, as I
heard nothing, I began to be afraid that she had been unable to banish
my humble self from her mind. And, to tell you the truth, the object of
this present visit to London was to inform myself, and, if necessary,
to--offer her--See?'

Hugo was bound to admit that he saw. Inwardly he laughed to think that
he had been seriously disturbed by Darcy's statement in regard to the
condition of Camilla's heart.

'Shall we go out to the top of the dome?' he suggested.

They rose.

And at that juncture Camilla reappeared.

The greeting between the Paris friends was commendably calm, but neither
seemed to be able to speak freely. And at length Camilla said she would
get a cloak and follow them to the belvidere.

The two men climbed to the summit which dominated the City of Pleasu