ly, was very much ashamed of himself, would be guided in all things
by Miss Ramsbotham, whom he should always regard as the truest of
friends, and so on.

Miss Ramsbotham's suggestion was this: Mr. Peters, no more robust of body
than of mind, had been speaking for some time past of travel. Having
nothing to do now but to wait for briefs, why not take this opportunity
of visiting his only well-to-do relative, a Canadian farmer. Meanwhile,
let Miss Peggy leave the bun shop and take up her residence in Miss
Ramsbotham's flat. Let there be no engagement--merely an understanding.
The girl was pretty, charming, good, Miss Ramsbotham felt sure; but--well,
a little education, a little training in manners and behaviour would not
be amiss, would it? If, on returning at the end of six months or a year,
Mr. Peters was still of the same mind, and Peggy also wishful, the affair
would be easier, would it not?

There followed further expressions of eternal gratitude. Miss Ramsbotham
swept all such aside. It would be pleasant to have a bright young girl
to live with her; teaching, moulding such an one would be a pleasant
occupation.

And thus it came to pass that Mr. Reginald Peters disappeared for a while
from Bohemia, to the regret of but few, and there entered into it one
Peggy Nutcombe, as pretty a child as ever gladdened the eye of man. She
had wavy, flaxen hair, a complexion that might have been manufactured
from the essence of wild roses, the nose that Tennyson bestows upon his
miller's daughter, and a mouth worthy of the Lowther Arcade in its days
of glory. Add to this the quick grace of a kitten, with the appealing
helplessness of a baby in its first short frock, and you will be able to
forgive Mr. Reginald Peters his faithlessness. Bohemia looked from one
to the other--from the fairy to the woman--and ceased to blame. That the
fairy was as stupid as a camel, as selfish as a pig, and as lazy as a
nigger Bohemia did not know; nor--so long as her figure and complexion
remained what it was--would its judgment have been influenced, even if it
had. I speak of the Bohemian male.

But that is just what her figure and complexion did not do. Mr. Reginald
Peters, finding his uncle old, feeble, and inclined to be fond, deemed it
to his advantage to stay longer than he had intended. Twelve months went
by. Miss Peggy was losing her kittenish grace, was becoming lumpy. A
couple of pimples--one near the right-hand corner of