of them. She appeared to brighten up a little,
but it was evident she was profoundly touched. She did not know what
she had done to merit such friends. Her voice broke a little, she moved
towards the door, and young Phipps, who was a youth of action rather
than of words, sprang and opened it--proud to be first.

"She is sorely troubled," said Dangle to Widgery. "We must do what we
can for her."

"She is a wonderful woman," said Dangle. "So subtle, so intricate, so
many faceted. She feels this deeply."

Young Phipps said nothing, but he felt the more.

And yet they say the age of chivalry is dead!

But this is only an Interlude, introduced to give our wanderers time to
refresh themselves by good, honest sleeping. For the present, therefore,
we will not concern ourselves with the starting of the Rescue Party,
nor with Mrs. Milton's simple but becoming grey dress, with the healthy
Widgery's Norfolk jacket and thick boots, with the slender Dangle's
energetic bearing, nor with the wonderful chequerings that set off the
legs of the golf-suited Phipps. They are after us. In a little while
they will be upon us. You must imagine as you best can the competitive
raidings at Midhurst of Widgery, Dangle, and Phipps. How Widgery
was great at questions, and Dangle good at inference, and Phipps so
conspicuously inferior in everything that he felt it, and sulked with
Mrs. Milton most of the day, after the manner of your callow youth the
whole world over. Mrs. Milton stopped at the Angel and was very sad and
charming and intelligent, and Widgery paid the bill in the afternoon
of Saturday, Chichester was attained. But by that time our fugitives--As
you shall immediately hear.

XXVII. THE AWAKENING OF MR. HOOPDRIVER

Mr. Hoopdriver stirred on his pillow, opened his eyes, and, staring
unmeaningly, yawned. The bedclothes were soft and pleasant. He turned
the peaked nose that overrides the insufficient moustache, up to the
ceiling, a pinkish projection over the billow of white. You might see it
wrinkle as he yawned again, and then became quiet. So matters remained
for a space. Very slowly recollection returned to him. Then a shock
of indeterminate brown hair appeared, and first one watery grey eye
a-wondering, and then two; the bed upheaved, and you had him, his thin
neck projecting abruptly from the clothes he held about him, his face
staring about the room. He held the clothes about him, I hope I may
explain, because his nigh