roject went more easily; and, during the autumn, the geological and
manufacturing experts sent out to report on the cement-works enterprise,
pronounced favorably, and gangs of men, during the winter, were to be
seen at work on the foundations of the great buildings by the scarped
chalk-hill.

The tension of my mind just after the Lynhurst Park affair was such as
to attune it to no impulses but the financial vibrations which pulsated
through our atmosphere. True, I sometimes felt the wonder return upon me
at the finding of the lovers of the art-gallery together once more, in
Josie and Cornish; and at other times Antonia's agitation after our
escape from shipwreck recurred to me in contrast with her smiling
self-possession while the boat was drifting and filling; but mostly I
thought of nothing, dreamed of nothing, but trust companies, additions,
bonds and mortgages.

Mr. Barr-Smith returned to London soon, giving a parting luncheon in his
rooms, where wine flowed freely, and toasts of many colors were pushed
into the atmosphere. There was one to the President and the Queen,
proposed by the host and drunk in bumpers, and others to Mr. Barr-Smith,
his brother, and the members of the "Syndicate." The enthusiasm grew
steadily in intensity as the affair progressed. Finally Mr. Cecil
solemnly proposed "The American Woman." In offering this toast, he said,
he was taking long odds, as it was a sport for which he hadn't had the
least training; but he couldn't forego the pleasure of paying a tribute
where tribute was due. The ladies of America needed no encomiums from
him, and yet he was sure that he should give no offense by saying that
they were of a type unknown in history. They were up to anything, you
know, in the way of intellectuality, and he was sure that in a certain
queenly, blonde way they were--

"Hear, hear!" said his brother, and burst into a laugh in which we all
joined, while Cecil went on talking, in an uproar which drowned his
words, though one could see that he was trying to explain something, and
growing very hot in the process.

Pearson announced that their train would soon arrive, and we all went
down to see them off. Barr-Smith assured us at parting that the
tram-road transaction might be considered settled. He believed, too,
that his clients might come into the cement project. We were all the
more hopeful of this, for the knowledge that he carried somewhere in
his luggage a bond for a deed to a consider