ation he gave himself of what already seemed mere
sleeplessness.

Michael found his mother very much worried by his disappearance; she had
assumed that he had broken his promise. He consoled her, but excused
himself from staying with her in town.

"You mustn't ask too much of me," he said.

"No, no, dearest boy; I'm glad for you to go away, but where will you
go?"

He thought he would pay an overdue visit to Cobble Place.

Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Carthew were delighted to see him, and he felt as he
always felt at Cobble Place the persistent tranquillity which not the
greatest inquietude of spirit could long withstand. It was now nearly
three years since he had been there, and he was surprised to see how
very old Mrs. Carthew had grown in that time. This and the active
presence of Kenneth, now a jolly boy of nine, were the only changes in
the aspect of the household. Michael enjoyed himself in firing Kenneth
with a passion for birds' eggs and butterflies, and they went long walks
together and made expeditions in the canoe.

Yet every day when Michael sat down to write to Lily, he almost wrote to
say he was coming to London as soon as his letter. Her letters to him,
written in a sprawling girlish hand, were always very much alike.

1 ARARAT HOUSE,

ISLAND ROAD, W.

My dear,

Come back soon. I'm getting bored. Miss Harper isn't bad. Can't
write a long letter because this nib is awful. Kisses.

Your loving

Lily.

This would stand for any of them.

May month had come in: Michael and Kenneth were finding whitethroats'
nests in the nettle-beds of the paddock, before a word to Mrs. Ross was
said about the marriage.

"Stella has written to me about it," she told him.

They were sitting in the straggling wind-frayed orchard beyond the
stream: lamps were leaping: apple-blossom stippled the grass: Kenneth
was chasing Orange Tips up the slope toward Grogg's Folly.

"Stella has been very busy all round," said Michael. "I suppose
according to her I'm going to marry an impossible creature. Creature is
as far as she usually gets in particular description of Lily."

"She certainly wasn't very complimentary about your choice," Mrs. Ross
admitted.

"I wish somebody could understand that it doesn't necessarily mean that
I'm mad because I'm going to marry a beautiful girl who isn't very
clever."

"But I gathered from Stella," Mrs. Ross said, "that her past ...
Michael, you must be ve