h the cool quietness of the
spare room could not soothe. The lavendered freshness of the bed invited
in vain. Crossing to the western window, he threw up the blind and
looked out to where, peeping out between roofs and trees, the gable
window of the Elms glittered in the early sun. The morning breeze blew
softly on his face, sweet with the scent of flowering pinks and
mignonette. In the orchard all the birds were up and singing. Every
blade of grass was gemmed with dew, sparkling through the yellow glory
of dawn like diamonds through a primrose veil. But Callandar, usually so
alive to every manifestation of beauty, saw nothing save the distant
glitter of the gable window. The morning, in which he could hardly hope
to see Esther, stretched before him intolerably long.

Upon impulse he drew his desk to the window and, sitting down, began to
write:

"Dear Old Button-Moulder--

"Behold the faulty button about to be recast! This is to be a big day. I
am writing you now because if she refuses me, I shan't be able to tell
you of it, and if she accepts me I shan't have time. I fancy you know
who she is, old man. I saw enlightenment grow in your eyes that day
after church. I hardly knew it myself, then, but now I am sure. Do you
remember that house we looked at one day? I have forgotten even the
street, but we can find it again. It had a long sloping lawn, you
remember, and stone steps and a beautiful panelled hall running straight
through to a walled garden which might well have fallen there by some
Arabian Nights enchantment. That is the house I mean to have for Esther.
I can see her there quite plainly, in her blue dress, filling the rose
bowl which stands upon the round table in a dusky corner of the hall.
Over her shoulder, through the open door, glows the riotous colour of
the garden. Her pure profile gleams like mother-o'-pearl against the
dark panelling--say, Willits, just go and look up that house, will you?
I am going to ask her to marry me. And I never knew before what a coward
I am. Was there ever a chap named Callandar who quoted uppish remarks
about being Captain of his Soul? If so, let me apologise for him. I
think the chap who wrote those verses could never have been in love--or
perhaps he wrote them after she said 'yes.' I'll telegraph the news.
Don't expect me to write. And don't dare to come down to see me. H.C.

"P.S.--I came upon a good thing the other day. It is by Galsworthy, the
chap who writes Englis