he was what came gaily down the street. She felt it through her
glove to make sure that it was still there. She took off the glove and
raised the ring to her lips, though I doubt not it was the cheapest
trinket. She viewed it from afar by stretching out her hand; she stooped
to see how it looked near the ground; she considered its effect on the
right of her and on the left of her and through one eye at a time. Even
when you saw that she had made up her mind to think hard of something
else, the little silly would take another look.

I give anyone three chances to guess why Mary was so happy.

No and no and no. The reason was simply this, that a lout of a young man
loved her. And so, instead of crying because she was the merest nobody,
she must, forsooth, sail jauntily down Pall Mall, very trim as to her
tackle and ticketed with the insufferable air of an engaged woman. At
first her complacency disturbed me, but gradually it became part of my
life at two o'clock with the coffee, the cigarette, and the liqueur. Now
comes the tragedy.

Thursday is her great day. She has from two to three every Thursday for
her very own; just think of it: this girl, who is probably paid several
pounds a year, gets a whole hour to herself once a week. And what does
she with it? Attend classes for making her a more accomplished person?
Not she. This is what she does: sets sail for Pall Mall, wearing all her
pretty things, including the blue feathers, and with such a sparkle
of expectation on her face that I stir my coffee quite fiercely. On
ordinary days she at least tries to look demure, but on a Thursday she
has had the assurance to use the glass door of the club as a mirror in
which to see how she likes her engaging trifle of a figure to-day.

In the meantime a long-legged oaf is waiting for her outside the
post-office, where they meet every Thursday, a fellow who always wears
the same suit of clothes, but has a face that must ever make him free of
the company of gentlemen. He is one of your lean, clean Englishmen,
who strip so well, and I fear me he is handsome; I say fear, for your
handsome men have always annoyed me, and had I lived in the duelling
days I swear I would have called every one of them out. He seems to be
quite unaware that he is a pretty fellow, but Lord, how obviously Mary
knows it. I conclude that he belongs to the artistic classes, he is
so easily elated and depressed; and because he carries his left thumb
curiously,