had been the eldest Miss Lovell, and as
she continued to dress charmingly, her social position rose rapidly.
Billy went everywhere with her, and evidently took a keen pride in her
success. It was even said that he designed her dresses for her, and I
have myself seen him earnestly studying the costumes in Russell and
Allen's windows.

The captain's prophecy remained unfulfilled. "Blase Billy"--if the name
could still be applied to him--hardly ever visited the Club after his
marriage. But I had grown to like him, and, as he had foretold, to like
his wife. I found their calm indifference to the burning questions of
the day a positive relief from the strenuous atmosphere of literary and
artistic circles. In the drawing-room of their little house in Eaton
Row, the comparative merits of George Meredith and George R. Sims were
not considered worth discussion. Both were regarded as persons who
afforded a certain amount of amusement in return for a certain amount of
cash. And on any Wednesday afternoon, Henrick Ibsen and Arthur Roberts
would have been equally welcome, as adding piquancy to the small
gathering. Had I been compelled to pass my life in such a house, this
Philistine attitude might have palled upon me; but, under the
circumstances, it refreshed me, and I made use of my welcome, which I
believe was genuine, to its full extent.

As months went by, they seemed to me to draw closer to one another,
though I am given to understand that such is not the rule in fashionable
circles. One evening I arrived a little before my time, and was shown up
into the drawing-room by the soft-footed butler. They were sitting in
the dusk with their arms round one another. It was impossible to
withdraw, so I faced the situation and coughed. A pair of middle-class
lovers could not have appeared more awkward or surprised.

But the incident established an understanding between us, and I came to
be regarded as a friend before whom there was less necessity to act.

Studying them, I came to the conclusion that the ways and manners of love
are very same-like throughout the world, as though the foolish boy,
unheedful of human advance, kept but one school for minor poet and East
End shop-boy, for Girton girl and little milliner; taught but the one
lesson to the end-of-the-nineteenth-century Johnny that he taught to
bearded Pict and Hun four thousand years ago.

Thus the summer and the winter passed pleasantly for the Honourable
Bill