r
the position was getting awkward. But Ladywell was blind as Bartimeus in
that direction, so well had indifference to Ethelberta's charms been
feigned by Neigh until he thought seriously of marrying her. Yet,
unfortunately for the interests of calmness, Ladywell was less blind with
his outward eye. In his reflections his glance had lingered again upon
the pocket-book which Neigh still held in his hand, and upon the two or
three rose-leaves on the floor, until he said idly, superimposing
humorousness upon misery, as men in love can:

'Rose-leaves, Neigh? I thought you did not care for flowers. What makes
you amuse yourself with such sentimental objects as those, only fit for
women, or painters like me? If I had not observed you with my own eyes I
should have said that you were about the last man in the world to care
for things of that sort. Whatever makes you keep rose-leaves in your
pocket-book?'

'The best reason on earth,' said Neigh. 'A woman gave them to me.'

'That proves nothing unless she is a great deal to you,' said Ladywell,
with the experienced air of a man who, whatever his inferiority in years
to Neigh, was far beyond him in knowledge of that sort, by virtue of his
recent trials.

'She is a great deal to me.'

'If I did not know you to be such a confirmed misogynist I should say
that this is a serious matter.'

'It is serious,' said Neigh quietly. 'The probability is that I shall
marry the woman who gave me these. Anyhow I have asked her the question,
and she has not altogether said no.'

'I am glad to hear it, Neigh,' said Ladywell heartily. 'I am glad to
hear that your star is higher than mine.'

Before Neigh could make further reply Ladywell was attracted by the glow
of green sunlight reflected through the south door by the grass of the
churchyard, now in all its spring freshness and luxuriance. He bent his
steps thither, followed anxiously by Neigh.

'I had no idea there was such a lovely green spot in the city,' Ladywell
continued, passing out. 'Trees too, planted in the manner of an orchard.
What a charming place!'

The place was truly charming just at that date. The untainted leaves of
the lime and plane trees and the newly-sprung grass had in the sun a
brilliancy of beauty that was brought into extraordinary prominence by
the sable soil showing here and there, and the charcoaled stems and
trunks out of which the leaves budded: they seemed an importation, not a
produce, an