offer of a shawl (a vivid plaid
which she assured me had been worn and purchased by no less an
authority upon gentlemen's wear than her father) had been finally,
almost bitterly, rejected by me.

It was then, when my fate seemed blackest to me, that Mr. Smith
discovered in the prolific galleries of his well-stored memory the
fact that it was perfectly permissible for a gentleman in my case to
go uncovered by any outer robe, providing--and this was
indispensable--that he carried some preferably light cloak or overcoat
upon his arm.

'And the weather being close and hot, too, as it certainly is to-night,
I'll wager you'll find you're quite in the mode if you get to
Potts Point with my covert coat on your arm. So that settles it.'

It did; and I was duly grateful. It certainly was a hot evening, and
in no sense any fault of Mr. Smith's that its warmth brought a heavy
thunderstorm of rain just as I began my walk up the long hill at Potts
Point, so that, taking shelter here and there, as opportunity offered,
but not daring to put on the enormously over-large coat, I finally ran
up to the house in pouring rain, with a coat neatly folded over one
arm. A few years later, no doubt, I should have been glad to slip the
coat on, or fling it over my head. But--it did not happen a few years
later....

My worshipful adoration of Miss Foster made me neglectful even of Mr.
Rawlence's Sunday afternoon receptions. To secure the chance of being
rewarded by five minutes alone with her, in the garden or elsewhere, I
suppose I must have given up hundreds of hours from a not very
plentiful allowance of leisure. And it is surprising, in retrospect,
to note how steadfast I was in my devotion; how long it lasted.

The young woman had ability; there's not a doubt of that. For, ardent
though I was, she allowed no embarrassing questions. I am free to
suppose that my devotion was not unwelcome or tiresome to her, and
that she enjoyed its innumerable small fruits in the shape of
offerings. But she kept me most accurately balanced at the precise
distance she found most agreeable. My letters--the columns and columns
I must have written!--were most fervid; and a good deal more eloquent,
I fancy, than my oral courtship. But yet I have her own testimony for
it that Mabel approved my declamatory style of love-making; the style
used when actually in the presence.

The end was in this wise: I called, ostensibly to see Mrs. Foster, on
a Saturday after