lties had presented
itself. Should he hereafter discover that something unforeseen
perturbed the smooth flow of life to which he looked forward, nothing
could be easier than his remedy; the world is wide, and a cosmopolitan
does not attach undue importance to a marriage contracted in one of its
somewhat numerous parishes. In any case he would have found the
temporary harbour of refuge which stress of weather had made necessary.
He surrendered himself to the pleasant tickling of his vanity which was
an immediate result of the adventure. For, whatever Clem might be
hiding, it seemed to him beyond doubt that she was genuinely attracted
by his personal qualities. Her demonstrations were not extravagant, but
in one noteworthy respect she seemed to give evidence of a sensibility
so little in keeping with her general character that it was only to be
explained as the result of a strong passion. In conversing with him she
at times displayed a singular timidity, a nervousness, a self-subdual
surprisingly unlike anything that could be expected from her. It was
true that at other moments her lover caught a gleam in her eyes, a
movement of her lips, expressive of anything rather than diffidence,
and tending to confirm his view of her as a cunning as well as fierce
animal, but the look and tone of subjugation came often enough to make
their impression predominant. One would have said that she suffered
from jealous fears which for some reason she did not venture to utter.
Now and then he surprised her gazing at him as if in troubled
apprehension, the effect of which upon Mr. Snowdon was perhaps more
flattering than any other look.

'What's up, Clem?' he inquired, on one of these occasions. 'Are you
wondering whether I shall cut and leave you when we've had time to get
tired of each other?'

Her face was transformed; she looked at him for an instant with fierce
suspicion, then laughed disagreeably.

'We'll see about that,' was her answer, with a movement of the head and
shoulders strongly reminding one of a lithe beast about to spring.

The necessary delay passed without accident. As the morning of the
marriage approached there was, however, a perceptible increase of
nervous restlessness in Clem. She had given up her work at Whitehead's,
and contrived to keep her future husband within sight nearly all day
long. Joseph James found nothing particularly irksome in this, for beer
and tobacco were supplied him _ad libitum_, and a succes