ifted along in this way until a certain morning spent by Mr.
Ramsay at the Browns',--eventful because a little thing happened which
convinced him that Bijou cared for him. He came home with a new pang
substituted for those he had been enduring for a lover's age. After dinner
he tramped off for a long walk alone, in the course of which it may fairly
be presumed that he decided what course to take, for early on the
following day he called especially, for the second time, upon Mr. Brown.

"I have come to tell you that I can't come here any more," he said,
holding his hat with his accustomed grace, and going in his
straightforward fashion immediately to the subject in his mind. "And I
wish to thank you for bein' so kind to me and receivin' me as you have
done, and to tell you why I am actin' in this way."

"Why, what's the matter? Going away? Isn't this rather sudden?" asked
Brown _p?_, all unsuspicious of what was to come.

"Oh, it isn't _that_! Though of course I shall be goin'. It is that I
can't marry. That is what it is. You should have been told of it before,
by rights, only I kept puttin' it off. You have a perfect right to blame
me for not sayin' so long ago, when you were good enough to admit me here
on an intimate footin'. It was a shabby, dishonorable thing of me, and I
hope you'll forgive it, rememberin' that it was not my intention to
deceive you," said Mr. Ramsay. "It wasn't, now, really."

"But, my dear fellow, of what are you accusing yourself? There must be
some mistake. What has that got to do with your visits here?" asked Mr.
Brown.

"Why, don't you see?--don't you object to me bein' thrown so much with
Miss Brown, under the circumstances?" stammered out Mr. Ramsay.

"Not the least in the world,--not the least in the world, I assure you.
Delighted to see you, I am sure, whenever you like to come," said Mr.
Brown, with hospitable warmth. "Why should I? There is no necessity for
your marrying anybody, that I can see. What put such a foolish idea in
your head?"

"But I thought you would think--she would think I thought--that is--as you
might say--"

A hearty laugh from Mr. Brown interrupted him: "Why, you seem to have
thought a good deal on the subject. The most extraordinary idea! Excuse my
saying so. This house is always full of young men dancing attendance on
Bijou, who is as popular a girl as there is; but I don't trouble _my_ head
about them, I can assure you. No, indeed. Half of them don't want