ced, and more proud than happy,
and more startled than proud. The manner and method of his courtship had
sharply differed from his previous conception of what such an affair
would be. He had not passed through the sensations which he would have
expected to pass through. And then this question was continually
presenting itself: _What could she see in him?_ She must have got a
notion that he was far more wonderful than he really was. Could it be
true that she, his superior in experience and in splendour of person,
had kissed him? _Him!_ He felt that it would be his duty to live up
to this exaggerated notion which she had of him. But how?

II

They had not yet discussed finance at all, though Denry would have liked
to discuss it. Evidently she regarded him as a man of means. This became
clear during the progress of the journey to Llandudno. Denry was
flattered, but the next day he had slight misgivings, and on the
following day he was alarmed; and on the day after that his state
resembled terror. It is truer to say that she regarded him less as a man
of means than as a magic and inexhaustible siphon of money.

He simply could not stir out of the house without spending money, and
often in ways quite unforeseen. Pier, minstrels, Punch and Judy,
bathing, buns, ices, canes, fruit, chairs, row-boats, concerts, toffee,
photographs, char-a-bancs: any of these expenditures was likely to
happen whenever they went forth for a simple stroll. One might think
that strolls were gratis, that the air was free! Error! If he had had
the courage he would have left his purse in the house as Ruth invariably
did. But men are moral cowards.

He had calculated thus:--Return fare, four shillings a week. Agreed
terms at boarding-house, twenty-five shillings a week. Total expenses
per week, twenty-nine shillings,--say thirty!

On the first day he spent fourteen shillings on nothing whatever--which
was at the rate of five pounds a week of supplementary estimates! On the
second day he spent nineteen shillings on nothing whatever, and Ruth
insisted on his having tea with herself and Nellie at their
boarding-house; for which of course he had to pay, while his own tea was
wasting next door. So the figures ran on, jumping up each day.
Mercifully, when Sunday dawned the open wound in his pocket was
temporarily stanched. Ruth wished him to come in for tea again. He
refused--at any rate he did not come--and the exquisite placidity of the
stream of th