n the end be boisterously approved of, and in that case, were
not the means justified? Not that he took trouble to argue thus, as older
heroes and self-convicting villains are in the habit of doing; to deduce
a clear conscience. Conscience and Lucy went together.

It was a soft fair day. The Rubicon sparkled in the morning sun. One of
those days when London embraces the prospect of summer, and troops forth
all its babies. The pavement, the squares, the parks, were early alive
with the cries of young Britain. Violet and primrose girls, and organ
boys with military monkeys, and systematic bands very determined in tone
if not in tune, filled the atmosphere, and crowned the blazing procession
of omnibuses, freighted with business men, Cityward, where a column of
reddish brown smoke,--blown aloft by the South-west, marked the scene of
conflict to which these persistent warriors repaired. Richard had seen
much of early London that morning. His plans were laid. He had taken care
to ensure his personal liberty against accidents, by leaving his hotel
and his injured uncle Hippias at sunrise. To-day or to-morrow his father
was to arrive. Farmer Blaize, Tom Bakewell reported to him, was raging in
town. Another day and she might be torn from him: but to-day this miracle
of creation would be his, and then from those glittering banks yonder,
let them summon him to surrender her who dared! The position of things
looked so propitious that he naturally thought the powers waiting on love
conspired in his behalf. And she, too--since she must cross this river,
she had sworn to him to be brave, and do him honour, and wear the true
gladness of her heart in her face. Without a suspicion of folly in his
acts, or fear of results, Richard strolled into Kensington Gardens,
breakfasting on the foreshadow of his great joy, now with a vision of his
bride, now of the new life opening to him. Mountain masses of clouds,
rounded in sunlight, swung up the blue. The flowering chestnut pavilions
overhead rustled and hummed. A sound in his ears as of a banner unfolding
in the joyful distance lulled him.

He was to meet his bride at the church at a quarter past eleven. His
watch said a quarter to ten. He strolled on beneath the long-stemmed
trees toward the well dedicated to a saint obscure. Some people were
drinking at the well. A florid lady stood by a younger one, who had a
little silver mug half-way to her mouth, and evinced undisguised dislike
to the li