ball gowns or hats and things from Paris, and--"

"And bearing all this in mind," she put in, "and knowing me as you do,
perhaps you can make another guess and tell me what I am likely to do
under these circumstances?"

Now, had I been anything but a preposterous ass, my answer would have
been different; but then I was not myself, and I could not help
noticing how tenderly her finger traced out those two letters F. S., so
I laughed rather brutally and answered:

"Follow the instinct of your sex and stick to the Paris hats and
things."

I heard her breath catch, and turning away, she began to flutter the
pages of the book upon the table.

"And you were always so clever at guessing, weren't you?" she said
after a moment, keeping her face averted.

"At least it has saved your explaining the situation, and you should be
thankful for that."

The book slipped suddenly to the ground and lay, all unheeded, and she
began to laugh in a strange, high key. Wondering, I took a step toward
her; but as I did so she fled from me, running toward the house, never
stopping or slackening speed, until I had lost sight of her altogether.

Thus the whole miserable business had befallen, dazing me by its very
suddenness like a "bolt from the blue." I had returned to the 'Three
Jolly Anglers,' determined to follow the advice of the Duchess and
return to London by the next train. Yet, after passing a sleepless
night, here I was sitting in my old place beneath the alders pretending
to fish.

The river was laughing among the reeds just as merrily as ever, bees
hummed and butterflies wheeled and hovered--life and the world were
very fair. Yet for once I was blind to it all; moreover, my pipe
refused to "draw"--pieces of grass, twigs, and my penknife were alike
unavailing.

So I sat there, brooding upon the fickleness of womankind, as many
another has done before me, and many will doubtless do after, alack!

And the sum of my thoughts was this: Lisbeth had deceived me; the hour
of trial had found her weak; my idol was only common clay, after all.
And yet she had but preferred wealth to comparative poverty, which
surely, according to all the rules of common sense, had shown her
possessed of a wisdom beyond her years. And who was I to sit and
grieve over it? Under the same circumstances ninety-nine women out of
a hundred would have chosen precisely the same course; but then to me
Lisbeth had always seemed the one exempt--the hundr