st chance. If you don't get Mr.
Tippengray, I can't see where you are going to find another man properly
older than you are."

XI

LANIGAN BEAM

That evening about eleven o'clock Walter Lodloe was sitting in his room
in the tower, his feet upon the sill of the large window which looked
out over the valley. He had come up to his room an hour or two before,
determined not to allow the whole day to pass without his having done
any work; and now, having written several pages of the story on which he
was engaged, he was enjoying the approbation of his conscience, the
flavor of a good cigar, and the beautiful moonlighted scene which he
beheld from his window.

More than this, he was thinking over the events of the day with a good
deal of interest and amusement, particularly of his afternoon walk with
Mr. Tippengray. He had taken a great fancy to that gentleman, who,
without making any direct confidences, had given him a very fair idea of
his relations with Calthea Rose. It was plain enough that he liked that
very estimable person, and that he had passed many pleasant hours in her
society, but that he did not at all agree with what he called her
bigoted notions in regard to proprietorship in fellow-beings.

On the other hand, Lodloe was greatly delighted with Miss Calthea's
manner of showing her state of mind. Quite unexpectedly they had met her
in Lethbury,--to which village Mr. Tippengray had not thought she would
return so soon,--and Lodloe almost laughed as he called to mind the
beaming and even genial recognition that she gave to him, and which, at
the same time, included effacement and extinction of his companion to
the extent of being an admirable piece of dramatic art. The effect upon
Lodloe had been such, that when the lady had passed he involuntarily
turned to see if the Greek scholar had not slipped away just before the
moment of meeting.

"When a woman tries so hard to show how little she thinks of a man,"
thought Lodloe, "it is a proof that she thinks a great deal of him, and
I shall not be surprised--" Just then there came a tap at the window
opposite the one at which he was sitting.

Now when a man in the upper room of a fairly tall tower, access to which
is gained by a covered staircase the door at the bottom of which he
knows he has locked, hears a tap at the window, he is likely to be
startled. Lodloe was so startled that his chair nearly tipped over
backward. Turning quickly, he saw a man's