s Whiffle.

I happened across my unconscious friends fairly frequently after that my
first introduction to them; so often, indeed, that, judged by what
followed, it would almost seem as if Fate, desiring record of an incident
in the lives of these two, had intentionally worked to discomfit me from
a task more engrossing.

Apart, and judged on their natural merits, I took Jack for a good stolid
fellow, innately and a little aggravatingly virtuous, and perhaps a
trifle more just than generous.

Jenny, I felt, had the spurious brilliancy of that division of her sex
that claims as intuition an inability to master the processes of thought,
and attributes to this faculty all fortunate conclusions, but none that
is faulty. I thought, with some commiseration for him, that at bottom her
manner showed some real leaning towards the lover she had discarded--that
she felt the need of a pincushion, as it were, into which to stick the
little points of her malevolence. I think I was inclined to be hard on
her. I have felt the same antagonism many times towards beauty that was
unattainable by me. For she was richly pretty, without doubt.

When in the neighbourhood of one another, however, they were wont to
assume an elaborate artificiality of speech and manner in communion with
their friends, that was designed with each to point the moral of a
complete indifference and forgetfulness. But the girl was by far the
better actor; and not only did she play her own part convincingly, but
she generally managed to show up in her rival that sense of mortification
that it was his fond hope he was effectually concealing.

A fortnight passed; and, lo! there came the end of the lovers' quarrel in
all dramatic appropriateness.

By that time the doings of Jack and Jenny had come to be my mind's only
refuge from such a vacancy of outlook as I had never before experienced.
"All down the coast," that summer, "the languid air did swoon." The earth
broiled, and very thought perspired; and Miss Whiffle's voice was like a
steam-whistle.

One day, as I was exhaustedly trifling with my meridian meal, and
balancing the gratification against the trouble of eating lumpy tapioca
pudding, a muffled, rolling thud broke upon my ears, making the window
and floor vibrate slightly. It seemed so distant and unimportant that I
took no notice of it; and it was only when, ten minutes later, I became
aware that certain excited townsfolk were scurrying past outside that