ind, and now that she was within a few yards he wished
he had not passed Half Moon Street, so that he might have slipped down
the turning in order to avoid a meeting.

Had he done so in all probability Bridget would have pursued him!
Quickening her pace she bore down upon the colonel with her right hand
outstretched, while with the left she held the enormous muff. He had
no alternative; it seemed inevitable that he should meet her half-way.
Although he had always admired her, she had never appeared quite so
enticing as this dull November morning; looking into his face with
merry eyes, while yet the corners of her mouth were drawn down as if to
express the penitence, which he knew that no one in the world could
have been farther from feeling.

"Oh, Colonel Faversham, how delighted I am to see you again!" she
cried, and the provoking part of it was that he could not avoid a
sensation of pleasure on seeing her at closer quarters. He did not
imagine for an instant that she wished to see him, although for the
time her manner might carry conviction. "I have positively been
longing to meet you," said Bridget.

"It is very kind to say so," muttered Colonel Faversham.

"And," she continued, with her eyes on his face, "how splendidly well
you are looking!"

"Ah, you think I am?" he answered. "Well, thank Heaven, I feel pretty
well. How long have you been in London?" he asked rather hastily,
because no one could feel more anxious to omit any allusion to the
painful past.

"Only a couple of days," said Bridget. "We had the loveliest time
abroad, and the best of it was that I really knew my way about far
better than Jimmy."

Well, Colonel Faversham, for his part, did not doubt that she knew her
way about better than most people.

"Now, tell the truth!" she exclaimed, as they stood in the middle of
the pavement, "don't you think you ought to feel immensely grateful to
me?"

"Bless my soul, I had not thought of that!" he answered, with a laugh.

"Well, you can recognize the fact now it's pointed out to you. Admit
you had a happy release, as they sometimes say in different
circumstances."

"Now I have seen you again," said Colonel Faversham gallantly, "it
becomes much more difficult than ever to believe anything of the sort."

"I hope," replied Bridget, "you mean to come and see me often. Jimmy
will be delighted. We have taken the duckiest little furnished flat
while we look about for a house of our own."

"Y