ny risks with, so
he folded his arms and talked in a brave, indifferent, bearing-up tone
about the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, just to cheer the
poor woman up a little. And even Mrs. Milton really felt that exalted
melancholy to the very bottom of her heart, and tried to show it in a
dozen little, delicate, feminine ways.

"There is nothing to do until we get to Chichester," said Dangle.
"Nothing."

"Nothing," said Widgery, and aside in her ear: "You really ate scarcely
anything, you know."

"Their trains are always late," said Phipps, with his fingers along the
edge of his collar. Dangle, you must understand, was a sub-editor and
reviewer, and his pride was to be Thomas Plantagenet's intellectual
companion. Widgery, the big man, was manager of a bank and a mighty
golfer, and his conception of his relations to her never came into his
mind without those charming oldlines, "Douglas, Douglas, tender and
true," falling hard upon its heels. His name was Douglas-Douglas
Widgery. And Phipps, Phipps was a medical student still, and he felt
that he laid his heart at her feet, the heart of a man of the world.
She was kind to them all in her way, and insisted on their being
friends together, in spite of a disposition to reciprocal criticism
they displayed. Dangle thought Widgery a Philistine, appreciating but
coarsely the merits of "A Soul Untrammelled," and Widgery thought Dangle
lacked, humanity--would talk insincerely to say a clever thing. Both
Dangle and Widgery thought Phipps a bit of a cub, and Phipps thought
both Dangle and Widgery a couple of Thundering Bounders.

"They would have got to Chichester in time for lunch," said Dangle, in
the train. "After, perhaps. And there's no sufficient place in the road.
So soon as we get there, Phipps must inquire at the chief hotels to see
if any one answering to her description has lunched there."

"Oh, I'LL inquire," said Phipps. "Willingly. I suppose you and Widgery
will just hang about--"

He saw an expression of pain on Mrs. Milton's gentle face, and stopped
abruptly.

"No," said Dangle, "we shan't HANG ABOUT, as you put it. There are
two places in Chichester where tourists might go--the cathedral and a
remarkably fine museum. I shall go to the cathedral and make an inquiry
or so, while Widgery--"

"The museum. Very well. And after that there's a little thing or two
I've thought of myself," said Widgery.

To begin with they took Mrs. Milton in a kind of