-severance; or they were mature lovers, and probably of the most
respectable. In either case, the necessary hint that ecstasies must
transfer themselves at sunset from the glass houses of the Jardin
Botanique to the outer air was best conveyed on this occasion by a
discreet gift of flowers. Accordingly he went on to where exotic
lilies were blooming, picked a few blossoms, returned, came with
soft padding steps up to Vivie, offered them with a bow and "Mes
felicitations _sinceres_, Madame." Vivie laughed and took the
lilies; Rossiter of course gave him a ten-franc note. And they
sauntered slowly back to the hotel.

L'ENVOI

I am reproached by such Art Critics as deign to notice my pictures
with "finishing my foregrounds over much,"--filling them with
superabundant detail, making the primroses more important than the
snow-peaks. And by my publishers with forgetting the price of paper
and the cost of printing. My jury of matrons thinks I don't know
where to leave off and that I might very well close this book on the
answer that Mrs. Warren's daughter gave to Sir Michael Rossiter's
proposal of marriage in the Palm House at Brussels. "The reader,"
they say, "can very well fill in the rest of the story for himself
or herself. It is hardly likely that Vivie will cry off at the last
moment, or Michael reconsider the plunge into a second marriage. Why
therefore waste print and paper and our eyesight in describing the
marriage ceremony, the inevitable visit to Honoria, and what Vivie
did with the property she inherited from her mother?"

No doubt they are all right. Yet I am distrustful of my readers'
judgment and imagination. I feel both want guiding, and I doubt
their knowledge of the world and goodness of heart being equal to
mine, except in rare cases.

So I throw out these indications to influence the sequels they may
plan to this story.

I think that Michael and Vivie were married at the British Legation
in Brussels between Christmas and the New Year of 1918-1919; before
that Legation was erected into an Embassy; and that the marriage
officer was kind, genial Mr. Hawk when he returned to Brussels from
The Hague and proceeded to get the Legation into working order. I am
sure Mr. Hawk entered into the spirit of the thing and gave an
informal breakfast afterwards in the Rue de Spa to which Mons. and
Mme. Walcker, Mons. and Mme. Trouessart, and the Directeur of the
prison of Saint-Gilles and his wife were invite