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signs of vociferous breakdown. So, while Dr. Watson continued his lecture on female vanity to Arabella, whom it seemed really to interest, Andrew set to work to console Laurie with promises of a present of Turkish Delight, the succulence of which he described in glowing terms.

«Stop talking to that snivelling kid, who has given trouble enough already», interrupted Mrs. Josky, who felt herself neglected, «and let’s go through the list of your luggage again, since if there is anything else left, I can send it by the night train to Dover».

«We’ve done it four times» expostulated Andrew, and broke off as he caught sight of the large form of Dr. Somerville Black surging towards him.

«Hullo! here you are, Andrew», said Black. «I thought I would drop round and give you an idea or two that occur to me about the treatment of that young man whom you are going to bear-lead. Why, there are Watson and Arabella, but I don’t see the rest of the Flower-garden», and his face fell. «They seem very interested in each other, don’t they? Too much so to notice a little one like me, so here goes», and he plunged into medical details about Algernon’s case, making Andrew take down a certain prescription in his note-book.

This went on until Lord Atterton and Clara appeared convoying Algernon, who seemed to be in a somewhat festive mood.

«That young man has been drinking a stirrup-cup, unless I am much mistaken», remarked Black as his keen eye fell upon him. «You will have to guard against this tendency of his, since Egypt won’t do him much good if he is always half-drunk».

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Andrew groaned, overwhelmed by his accumulated woes, but had no time to answer, for just then the others reached them.

The details of that interminable farewell need not be described at length. Lord Atterton said little, but Andrew, whose dark eyes roaming round in continual search of Rose upon the crowded platform fell upon his face, noted that it was wrung with grief. His mouth twisted and although the day was cold, beads of perspiration appeared upon his bald head and forehead which he wiped away with a silk pocket-handker- chief, lifting his hat to do so; his small eyes that followed his son’s every movement blinked continually, and from time to time he brushed his hand across them, evidently brushing away a tear. Moreover he noticed that notwithstanding her quiet, even talk to whoever happened to be next to her, Clara also observed these things and was watching her uncle anxiously. Only Algernon did not observe. His energies were absorbed in trying to obtain a copy of the Sporting Times which was not forthcoming, and in bribing porters with sixpences to get it for him.

Andrew, who was by nature sympathetic, understood that his uncle was suffering; more, that he was terribly afraid lest he was looking his last upon his only child who, whatever his failings, was all the world to him a lonely man; perhaps even that in his soul he had some premonition that this was so. Andrew did not like his uncle; their natures were antagonistic and he had never pretended otherwise. But now for the first time he felt drawn to him and remembered that after all the same blood ran in their veins, so much so that he freed

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himself from the rest of the party and went to where Lord Atterton stood looking strangely alone even in that populated place.

«I will do my best for him, Uncle, I will indeed», said Andrew, in answer to the thoughts which he knew were passing through the man’s mind.

«I hope so», was the steely answer. «Under all the circumstances, if you didn’t, you’d be a – well, never mind. And I tell you straight out, Andrew, that if anything happens to Algernon while he is in your charge I shall never forgive you».

«Then that means that you will be very unjust, Uncle». «Perhaps, but it is true. I hate the whole business», he add-

ed with cold passion, «and wish that I had never gone into the house of that infernal, vulgar doctor there, more than I ever wished anything in my life. But it was fate, for otherwise why should I have found you there, of all men in the world? Don’t answer, for there is nothing to be said. If you want money, draw on me to any extent. Your Letter of Credit is practically unlimited».

«Why don’t you come too?» asked Andrew in despair.

«If you wish to know, I’ll tell you. Not for any of the reasons that I have given, but because my son does not want me. He dislikes me as much as you do yourself, and my presence would retard or destroy his chance of recovery».

Then Andrew understood all the tragedy of the life of this most successful man.

Retiring overwhelmed, he met Dr. Black, who had strolled a little way up the platform as though he were looking for some one, and was now returning to speak to his daughter.

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«The Flower-garden don’t appear», said the doctor, «which is odd, since I understood that she was coming».

Andrew wondered vaguely how or why he understood anything of the sort, but only said:

«So did I and everybody else. I suppose she has not met with an accident?»

«Good God!» said the doctor, starting, «I hope not». «So do I», replied Andrew, fervently.

Then the guard ordered him into the train and everybody began to say good-bye, though their words were lost in the piercing howls to which the emotional Laurie at length gave vent.

Algernon nearly missed it after all. He had vanished. Just as the whistle blew he appeared running and waving a copy of the Sporting Times in triumph.

«I’ve got it», he said with a triumphant chuckle that ended in a cough. «Good-bye, Father. Keep your pecker up and your temper down, and don’t forget to post it to me every week».

Lord Atterton stretched out his arm, perhaps to take his son’s hand, perhaps to embrace him. In either case he was too late, for the guard pushed Algernon through the door as the train began to move, and slammed it behind him. Then they were off and the last of them that Andrew saw was Clara waving the very cleanest and most delicate of pocket-hand- kerchiefs and Mrs. Josky kissing one hand to him, while with the other with great vigour she shook the howling Laurie.

After this, Algernon having remarked: «Thank Heaven! That infernal business is over», went to sleep in one cor-

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ner of the carriage, while Andrew sat in the other, brooding over the cruelty of fate which had prevented him from seeing Rose and racked with fears lest something should have happened to her.

At Dover his anxieties on this point were relieved, for when he entered the hotel where they had taken rooms for the night, a telegram was put into his hands. He tore it open in a fever of apprehension, to find it was from Dr. Black and read:

«Flower-garden all right. Picked a late Rose in the Strand and drove it home to be put in water in a Red vase. Had been detained selecting appropriate foliage, but found colours difficult to match. Good luck, and don’t fall in love with tropical blooms which this climate never suits. Black».

From all which ponderous and characteristic joke Andrew gathered that Arabella was not far wrong when she suggested that Rose had gone to try on hats. Still, he could have wished that she had selected some other opportunity for that feminine entertainment. A shiver of doubt went through him as he reflected on this matter. If Rose loved him as much as he knew she did, how could she become so engrossed with clothes that she had missed him at the station – especially when he had given her a margin of an extra forty minutes?

Although he was not over-punctual, had their positions been reversed he could never have made such a mistake. But then women were different to men; he must always remember that women were extremely different, and that bright butterfly, Rose, flitting in the sunshine and herself filled with sweetness and light, also perhaps with dreams of which the thought thrilled him, naturally took little reck of such

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a common everyday thing as time. It was lucky that Dr. Black had found her, doubtless wandering bewildered in the crowd and probably being stared at by brutal men, for the Strand was not a place for her to frequent alone, also that he had been able to drive her home.

On second thoughts, was it so fortune? Now he came to think of it, how did the doctor know she was coming to the station? And generally why did he know everything about her? Not through Arabella he was sure, since, although they were living in the same house, nobody seemed to be quite so unacquainted with whatever had to do with Rose.

It never occurred to him that the drab-coloured and insignificant Angelica who did everything for Rose, possessed eyes and ears which she might be willing to put at the service of anyone who treated her kindly and generously, and that kindness and generosity were outstanding characteristics in the nature of Dr. Black. If he had thought of the matter at all, he would have concluded that Angelica was too fond of Rose and too faithful to her interests to «give her away» in any particular.

He disliked Angelica, a person who did not appeal to him because he thought her one of petty mind, and he knew that she disliked him although she pretended otherwise. Still, with the blind confidence of youth in love that believes itself to be loved, he never dreamt that Angelica would wish Rose to marry anyone but himself, or that she could conceive her cousin’s true advantage to lie in another direction. Nor could he have held it possible that she told certain stories to Mrs. Josky which

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CHAPTER IX

WHAT HAPPENED IN EGYPT

Andrew and Algernon had a prosperous journey to Egypt. In the train from Paris to Brindisi they, or rather Algernon for Andrew seemed to feel no further interest in the female sex, made the acquaintance of a handsome and vivacious young woman whose name was Fairley. She was travelling with an elderly aunt, a somnolent person with a stout figure and a squeaky voice who was also named Fairley. Andrew could not make out much about them, except that they were not ladies, and indeed did not take the trouble to do so, for the elder Miss Fairley, either from torpor or for other reasons, was uncommunicative, while the younger Miss Fairley, who soon came to be known as Florence as a kind of identification badge, talked little of her home or belongings, although she talked a great deal about everything else. All he gathered was that they were well-to-do and came from Manchester or its neighbourhood, also that they were supposed to be travelling for the benefit of the health of Miss Fairley senior, whom Algernon christened the Dormouse.

As a matter of fact the real object of their journeyings was different. Miss Fairley senior was the sister and Miss Fairley junior was the daughter of a deceased Manchester tradesman

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who had left the latter a certain fortune, but not nearly as much as she wanted. Indeed, being an active-minded and pushing young woman, she wanted a good deal, amongst other things to escape from her humble associations and to advance herself in the world by means of a satisfactory marriage, objects which she could not attain in Manchester where she was known. In pursuit of these perfectly laudable aims she was undertaking a trip to Egypt where, as she put it, «nice people go in winter», dragging the Dormouse with her as the most ideal of chaperones, since a person who sleeps eighteen hours out of the twenty-four and spends the remaining six in thinking about her liver and her food, sees little and hears less.

Luck favoured her from the start, since at the Paris gare she stumbled upon Algernon, who was immensely struck by her large and generous appearance and her flashing black eyes, and invoked his assistance as a friendly Englishman (Andrew was absent seeing about the luggage) to help her to retrieve her aunt who had gone to sleep in a waiting-room and could not be found.

Of course, after this adventure they travelled in the same carriage, talking incessantly, much to Andrew’s annoyance, for in his soulful mood he found the Dormouse a more restful companion. By the time they reached Brindisi the fair and buoyant Florence knew all there was to learn about Algernon, and decided that, in vulgar language, he filled her bill. It is not every day that the daughter of a Manchester tradesman comes across the only son of one of the wealthiest peers in England who is clearly stricken with admiration for

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her at first sight. Her heart swelled at the thought of what might not happen as a result of this most fortunate rencontre.

«Why, within a year I might be a prospective peeress», she reflected to herself, and trembled at the glittering vision. Alas! poor Florence did not recall the wise and ancient proverb as to the number of slips there are between cups and lips.

Perhaps the Dormouse was not always quite as much asleep as she seemed to be. At any rate, in an interval of wakefulness induced by sea-sickness which afflicted them both during their first night on the boat, she asked her niece in hollow tones, what she was after with «that young Honourable».

«What is a woman generally after with a man?» replied Florence with acerbity from the upper bunk.

«All sorts of things; it depends upon what she can get», commented the Dormouse. «But I suppose marriage is your game. You’d like to be a peeress».

«Who wouldn’t?» said Florence tartly.

«Then I’m thinking that you’ve got the wrong one by the boot. You should go for the doctor, for he comes next. I found that out in a book in the saloon, and he’ll live longer. That Honourable is a crock».

«Well, women have lost their husbands before now», reflected Florence aloud.

«Oh, I see», said the Dormouse with brutal frankness. «You mean that if he lives long enough to marry you, you don’t care what happens afterwards. Well, you’d better look sharp, for he isn’t a laster. And now be quiet, for I want to be sick».

Florence did look sharp, and by the time they reached Port Said was secretly half-engaged to Algernon, who insisted that

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