k quoits.

I am very sure that Mrs. Oldcastle was never what is called a flirt,
and I believe the general tone of our conversations was sufficiently
rational. Yet I will not deny that there were times--on the balcony of
the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo, and on the _Oronta's_ promenade deck
by moonlight--when my attitude towards this charming lady was
definitely tinged by sentiment. Withal, I doubt if any raw boy could
have been more shy, in some respects, than I; for I was most
sensitively conscious during this time of the fact that I was a very
unsocial, middle-aged man, of indifferent health, and, for that
reason, unattractive appearance. Whereas, Mrs. Oldcastle had all the
charms of the best type of 'the woman of thirty,' including the
evident enjoyment of that sort of health which is the only real
preservative of youth. Being by habit a lonely and self-conscious
creature, I had even more than the average Englishman's horror of
making myself ridiculous.

We were off the coast of south-western Australia when I sat down in my
cabin one morning for the purpose of seriously reviewing my position,
with special reference to recent conversations with Mrs. Oldcastle.
Certain things I laid down as premises which could not be questioned;
as, for example, that I found this gracious little lady (Mrs.
Oldcastle was petite and softly rounded in figure; I am tall and
inclined in these days to a stooping, scraggy kind of gauntness) a
most delightful companion, admirably well-informed, vivacious, and
unusually gifted in the matter of deductive powers and the sense of
humour. Also, that (whatever the ship's chatterboxes might say) there
had been nothing in the faintest degree compromising in our relations
so far.

From such premises I began to argue with myself upon the question of
marriage. It is not very easy to get these things down in black and
white. I was perfectly sure that Mrs. Oldcastle was heartwhole. And
yet, absurdly presumptuous as it must look when I write it, I was
equally sure that it would be possible for me to woo and win her. It
may seem odd, but this charming woman did really enjoy my society. She
liked talking with me. She found my understanding of her ready and
sympathetic, and--what doubtless appealed to both of us--she found
that talk with me had a rather stimulating effect upon her; that it
drew out, in combating my point of view, the best of her excellent
qualities. Using large words for lesser things, she