words, 'Thank you.'

Even as I turned away after my long and fruitless waiting, I did not
promise myself to forget her, nor altogether to quit the chase. I
hypocritically said, 'Now I will trust a little to chance.' How Dave
would have laughed could he have known my thoughts!

* * * * *

By nine o'clock that morning there were thousands of people thronging
the Court of Honour, drifting out and in under the arches of the
Administration Building, and up and down upon the streets on either
side of it. Everywhere there was a look of expectancy, and no
apparent desire to move on.

As the morning advanced, and the active guards began to stretch ropes
at either side of the entrance through which the procession would
pass, the throng drew together from various directions and massed
themselves, as many of them as could drawing close to the rope
outside; some with the narrow comfortless-looking red chairs seating
themselves with the great rope actually resting upon their knees, to
be hemmed in and pressed upon at once by row after row of crowding,
pushing humanity, while others swarmed boldly between the ropes and
filled the smooth gravelled space reserved for the honoured guests and
the city magnates attendant upon them.

It was a good-humoured crowd, but it held its place until, from the
entrance of the building, a line of guards in full uniform came slowly
out, while from the east a second company came forward, two by two,
and these spreading into a line, single file, and facing about, united
with the others in forming an L, and thus slowly, quietly, but none
the less surely, they advanced, while just as slowly and almost as
composedly the crowd fell back, and outward, until the roped-in space
was cleared, only to partially fill, and to be again cleared, once and
again.

Brainerd and I had separated upon reaching the place, and I had not
seen him since, although I had moved about from point to point almost
ceaselessly.

As eleven o'clock approached the crowd began to grow restless, and
questions to be bandied about from one to another, while guards, as
ignorant for the most part as their questioners, were interviewed
endlessly.

'When is she coming?'

'Is she coming soon?'

'Are you sure she will come here?'

'Is it eleven o'clock?' etc.

It was eleven o'clock when I drew out from the throng that had pressed
within the ropes, only to be slowly driven out again, and passed
throug