ce, the pure curves of her mouth, her sapphirine eyes, her pretty
hands, her golden hair, the nose which others found fault with, which
he, nevertheless, thought wholly delightful. He wondered what she would
say and how she would look when they met. Would she be pale? Would she
be frightened? There had always been a certain agony in every former
meeting because of the farewell which had to follow. With all his habits
of self-control, he had never been able to feel quite sure that the word
too much would not be said, that the glance too long would not be given.
Her own simplicity, he told himself, had saved him from disaster. She
showed her affection so fearlessly--with such tender and discerning
trust--that his worst struggles were in solitude--not in her presence at
all. It was when he was away from her immediate peaceful influence that
the fever, the restlessness, the torments and the desperation (has not
old Burton summed up for us the whole situation and all the symptoms in
his "_Anatomy_"?) had to be endured and conquered. These trials now--for
even a sense of humour could not make them less than trials--were ended.
The tragi-comic labour of walking too much and riding too much, working
and smoking too much, thinking and sleeping too little--the whole dreary
business, in fact, of stifling any absorbing idea or ruling passion,
would be no more.

When he returned to Almouth House, Reckage was already dressed for his
official duties as "best man." He felt an unwonted and genuine
excitement about Robert's marriage. He put aside the languor, _ennui_,
and depression which he felt too easily on most occasions, and, that day
at least, he was, as his own servant expressed it, "nervous and cut-up."

"I shall miss the swimming, the boxing, the fencing, and the pistol
practice," he complained, referring to diversions in which Orange was an
expert and himself the bored but dutiful participant. "They nearly
always drop these things when they marry." The loss he really feared was
the moral support and affection of his former secretary--advantages
which a selfish nature is slow to appreciate, yet most tenacious of when
once convinced of their use. The nuptial mass had been fixed for eight
o'clock, the wedding party were to breakfast at Almouth House
afterwards, then the bride and groom were to leave by the mail for
Southampton _en route_ for Miraflores in Northern France. The two young
men drove together to the chapel attached to