indle, having
lost the location of the switch.

At 10.30 the travellers were seated at a table in the immense
dining-room, which was populated by fifteen waiters of various European
nationalities, and six belated guests including themselves. The one item
on the menu which did not exceed his comprehension was Welsh rarebit,
and he ordered it.

It was while they were waiting in anticipation of this dish that he
decided to commence operations upon Helen. The fact was, he was becoming
very anxious to put affairs on a definite footing. "Well, my girl," he
said, "cheer up. If ye tak' my advice ye'll make up yer mind to stop i'
owd England with yer owd uncle."

"Of course I will," she answered, softly; and added: "If you'll do as I
want."

"Buy that barracks?"

She nodded.

He was on the very point of yielding; he was on the very point of
saying, with grandfatherly, god-like tone of utter beneficence: "Lass,
ye shall have it. I wouldn't ha' given it ye, but it's like as if what
must be--this luggage being lost. It's like as if Providence was in it."
He was on the very point of this decisive pronouncement, when a novel
and dazzling idea flashed into his head.

"Listen here," he said, bending across the table towards her, "I'll toss
thee."

"Toss me?" she exclaimed, startled.

"Ay! I'll toss thee, if thou'lt stay. Heads I buy the barracks; tails I
don't, and you live with me in a _house_."

"Very well," she agreed, lightly.

He had not really expected her to agree to such a scheme. But, then,
young women named Helen can be trusted absolutely to falsify
expectation.

He took a sixpence from his pocket.

"Heads I win, eh?" he said.

She acquiesced, and up went the sixpence.

It rolled off the table on to the Turkey carpet (Jimmy was not so adroit
as he had been in his tossing days), and seven Austrians, Germans, and
Swiss sprang towards it with a simultaneous impulse to restore it to its
owner.

Jimmy jumped to his feet.

"Don't touch it!" he cried, and bent over it.

"Nay, nay!" he muttered, "I've lost. Th' old man's lost, after all!"

And he returned to the table, having made a sensation in the room.

Helen was in paradise. "I'm surprised you were ready to toss, uncle,"
said she. "However, it's all right; we can get the luggage to-morrow.
It's at Crewe."

"How dost know it's at Crewe?" he demanded.

"Because I had it labelled for Crewe. You _were_ silly to imagine that I
was going to leave you. Bu