ling into which he had conspired with circumstance to school himself
was breaking up again, and, with all his knowledge of the world, he felt
himself helpless.

There never was a tale of this sort which came to a definite end without
the aid of circumstances which were not planned by either party to the
coming contract. It befell that the only married woman of the corps, who
travelled with a child of seven, took cold, and had to be left behind.
The child, playing, neglected, about the hotel, sustained some injury
in the lift which plied between the upper and the lower stories. The
company was only twenty miles away, and Paul, learning the news, bought
grapes and jellies for the younger invalid and wines for the elder, and
chartered a carriage to the town where they were staying. Half a mile
before him was a hooded vehicle, which kept its relative place, more or
less, throughout the journey. It was full in sight until the outlying
streets of the town were reached, and it came into view again when he
arrived at his destination--drawn up before the hotel door, and empty.
A moment's interview with the manageress gave him the right to mount
the stairs, and, when he tapped at the door of the room in which the
invalids reposed, a voice he had not expected to hear bade him come in.
There was Miss Hampton, of whom he had been thinking a good deal too
much of late, sitting with the child upon her knees, and holding a grape
above his lips. The child pouted for it, and he and the mother and the
visitor were all laughing together.

'I beg your pardon,' said the intruder clumsily; 'I had expected to find
you alone. I have driven over with these little odds and ends in the way
of medical comforts for the boy.'

He stood confused, and laid his burden on the table which stood in the
centre of the room.

'Didn't you guess,' laughed the little mother from the couch on which
she lay, 'that Miss Hampton would be here before you?'

'No,' said Paul. 'If I had guessed, I should not have intruded. You'll
take these things for the little fellow, won't you?'

'You're not going yet, Mr. Armstrong?' said the lady on the couch. 'You
and Miss Hampton will have a nice little ride back together.'

'I should not dream,' said Paul, 'of intruding on Miss Hampton, and I
must go back at once.'

He had no business in front of him, but he dreaded himself, and he was
afraid of a _tete-a-tete_ with the plain little woman with the brown
eyes.

'But,'