ed for a moment as I
took my cynical resolve. And now I trust that I have made both my
position and my intentions very plain, and have written myself down
neither more of a fool nor less of a knave than circumstances (and one's
own infirmities) combined to make me at this juncture of my career.

The design was still something bolder than its execution, and if Bob did
not propose that night it was certainly no fault of mine. I saw him with
Mrs. Lascelles on the terrace after dinner; but I had neither the heart
nor the face to thrust myself upon them. Everything was altered since
Bob had shown me his hand; there were certain rules of the game which
even I must now observe. So I left him in undisputed possession of the
perilous ground, and being in a heavy glow from the strong air of the
glacier, went early to my room; where I lay long enough without a wink,
but quite prepared for Bob, with news of his engagement, at every step
in the corridor.

Next day was Sunday, and chiefly, I am afraid, because there was neither
blind nor curtain to my dormer-window, and the morning sun streamed full
upon my pillow, I got up and went to early service in the little tin
Protestant Church. It was wonderfully well attended. Quinby was there,
a head taller than anybody else, and some sizes smaller in heads. The
American bridegroom came in late with his "best girl." The late Vice
Chancellor, with the peeled nose, and Mr. Belgrave Teale, fit for Church
Parade, or for the afternoon act in one of his own fashion-plays, took
round the offertory bags, into which Mr. Justice Sankey (in race-course
checks) dropped gold. It was not the sort of service at which one cares
to look about one, but I was among the early comers, and I could not
help it. Mrs. Lascelles, however, was there before me, whereas Bob Evers
was not there at all. Nevertheless, I did not mean to walk back with her
until I saw her walking very much alone, a sort of cynosure even on the
way from church, though humble and grave and unconscious as any country
maid. I watched her with the rest, but in a spirit of my own. Some
subtle change I seemed to detect in Mrs. Lascelles as in Bob. Had he
really declared himself overnight, and had she actually accepted him? A
new load seemed to rest upon her shoulders, a new anxiety, a new care;
and as if to confirm my idea, she started and changed colour as I came
up.

"I didn't see you in church," she remarked, in her own natural fashion,
when