haven't met your lady-love yet?"

"No, rather not, worse luck. Still, there's plenty of time. What about
you?" Maurice asked the question indifferently. He regarded his friend
as a stone where women were concerned.

"I've seen her," said Michael. He simply had to give himself the
pleasure of announcing so much.

"By Jove, have you really? You've actually found your fate?" Maurice was
evidently very much excited by Michael's lapse into humanity; he had
been snubbed so often when he had rhapsodized over girls. "What's she
like?"

"I haven't spoken to her yet. I've only seen her in the distance."

"And you've really fallen in love? I say, do stay and have lunch with me
here. Castleton isn't coming back from the Temple until after tea."

Michael would have liked to sit at the window and talk of Lily, while he
stared out over the sea of roofs under one of which at this very moment
herself might be looking in his direction. However, he thought if he
once began to talk about Lily to Maurice, he would tell him too much,
and he might regret that afterward. Yet he could not resist saying that
she was tall and fair and slim. Such epithets might be applied to many
girls, and it was only for himself that in this case they had all the
thrilling significance they did.

"I like fair girls best," Maurice agreed. "But most fair girls are
dolls. If I met one who wasn't, I should be hopelessly in love with
her."

"Perhaps you will," Michael said. Since he had seen Lily he felt very
generous, and even more than generosity he felt that he actually had the
power to offer to Maurice dozens of fair girls from whom he could choose
his own ideal. Really he must not stay a moment longer in the studio, or
he would be blurting out the whole tale of Lily; and were she to be his,
he must hold secrets about her that could never be unfolded.

"I really must bolt off," he declared. "I've got a cab waiting."

Michael drove along to Cheyne Walk, and when he reached home, it caused
the parlormaid not a flicker to receive him and to take his luggage and
inquire what should be obtained for his lunch.

"Life's really too easy in this house," he thought. "It's so impossible
to surprise the servants here that one would give up trying ultimately.
I suppose that will be the beginning of settling down. At this rate, I
shall settle down much too soon. Yes, life is too easy here."

Michael went to the Orient that night certain that he would meet Lily at