ly--I hark back to it--it _must_ happen to one or
other of every married couple to look across the table and
realise the words _Till death us do part_. When it happens to
both simultaneously I suppose murder follows; or, at least,
divorce.

"Talking about murder, I've to confess that at Versailles I felt
the impulse again. You know that infernal Galerie des Glaces?
Well, of a sudden the multiplication of Farrell's face and the
bald spot at the back of his head came near to overpowering me.
We had escaped, too, from the wandering sightseers, and stood
isolated at the end of the vast hall. . . . High sniffing
dilettanti may say what they like, but Versailles is what Jimmy
would call a 'knock-out.' The very first view of the Grand
Avenue had knocked Farrell out, at all events, and he had stared
at the great fountains, and followed me through courts and
galleries in mere bedazement, speechless, with eyes like a
fish's, round and bulging and glassy. . . . He looked so funny,
standing there . . . so small . . . and yet actually, I suppose,
taller than the late King Louis Quatorze by three inches.
. . . Somewhere outside on a terrace a band was playing things
from the _Mariage de Figaro_--Figaro, at Versailles of all
places! . . . In short the world had gone pretty mad for a
moment, and for that moment I felt that, in this _bizarrerie_ of
contrast it might dignify our quarrel if Farrell died amid such
magnificent surroundings. . . . But I conquered the impulse all
right: and this, the third time, was the easiest."

"I got him away to the Little Trianon: and there in its gardens--
as you would lay in the shade a patient suffering from
sunstroke--I conducted him to a seat under the spring boughs
beside the little lake that reflects the Hameau. He stared on
the green turf at our feet, and across at the grouped rustic
buildings, all as pretty as paint, and came out of his stupor
with a long sigh.

"'A-ah!' he murmured. 'That's better! That does me good.'

"Then I knew that it was coming: that I must break his fate to
him. I even gave him the prompt-word.

"'Homelike,' I suggested.

"'You've hit it,' he said, and paused. 'No place like Home!
I'm glad enough to have seen all that show yonder.' He waved a
hand. 'But I wouldn't