the connection of ideas
is clear."

"You are going to marry Mabel!" cried Mr. Cupples. "My dear friend, what
good news this is! Shake hands, Trent; this is glorious! I congratulate
you both from the bottom of my heart. And may I say--I don't want to
interrupt your flow of high spirits, which is very natural indeed, and I
remember being just the same in similar circumstances long ago--but may
I say how earnestly I have hoped for this? Mabel has seen so much
unhappiness, yet she is surely a woman formed in the great purpose of
humanity to be the best influence in the life of a good man. But I did
not know her mind as regarded yourself. _Your_ mind I have known for
some time," Mr. Cupples went on, with a twinkle in his eye that would
have done credit to the worldliest of creatures. "I saw it at once when
you were both dining at my house, and you sat listening to Professor
Peppmueller and looking at her. Some of us older fellows have our wits
about us still, my dear boy."

"Mabel says she knew it before that," replied Trent with a slightly
crestfallen air. "And I thought I was acting the part of a person who
was not mad about her to the life. Well, I never was any good at
dissembling. I shouldn't wonder if even old Peppmueller noticed something
through his double convex lenses. But however crazy I may have been as
an undeclared suitor, I am going to be much worse now. Here's the
place," he broke off, as the cab rushed down a side-street and swung
round a corner into a broad and populous thoroughfare. "We're there
already." The cab drew up.

"Here we are," said Trent as he paid the man and led Mr. Cupples into a
long paneled room set with many tables and filled with a hum of talk.
"This is the house of fulfilment of craving, this is the bower with the
roses around it. I see there are three bookmakers eating pork at my
favorite table. We will have that one in the opposite corner."

He conferred earnestly with a waiter, while Mr. Cupples, in a pleasant
meditation, warmed himself before the great fire. "The wine here," Trent
resumed, as they seated themselves, "is almost certainly made out of
grapes. What shall we drink?"

Mr. Cupples came out of his reverie. "I think," he said, "I will have
milk and soda-water."

"Speak lower!" urged Trent. "The head-waiter has a weak heart, and he
might hear you. Milk and soda-water! Cupples, you may think you have a
strong constitution, and I don't say you have not, but I warn you tha