those dear eyes.

Regarding this as the most serious undertaking of my life, I had
endeavoured to overlook nothing. I had obtained a marriage licence. A
London registrar's office was to serve our purpose. I had previously
secured a temporary lodging in London, and now went there with my
luggage. Love did not blind me to practical considerations. While
Cynthia was still in Dorking I had no time to spare. Now that she was
entangled in her own home among last preparations for the wedding that
was not to be, I turned my attention to matters affecting her future
life with me.

Three afternoon appointments I kept with Arncliffe in the _Advocate_
office. When I left him after our third talk, I was definitely re-engaged
as a member of his staff, at a salary of six hundred pounds
per annum, having promised to take up my duties with him in one month
from that date. Every nerve in my body had been keyed to the
attainment of this result, and I was grateful, and not a little
flattered by its achievement. I was still a poor man; but this salary,
with the few hundred pounds I might hope to add to it in a year, by
means of independent literary work, would at all events mean that
Cynthia need not face actual discomfort in her life with me. Further,
I sincerely believed (and may very well have been correct in this)
that her influence upon me would enlarge the scope and appeal of my
literary work. I realised clearly that my beautiful lady-love had very
much to give me. My life till then had not entirely lacked culture or
intellectuality. But it emphatically had lacked that grace, that
element of gentle fineness and delicacy which Cynthia would give it.

Cynthia, who in giving me herself would give all that I desired which
my life had lacked, should come to me empty-handed, I thought. I did
not want her to borrow from out the life which for my sake she was
relinquishing. On the day before that fixed upon for the wedding at
St. Margaret's, she should come to me in the park, near her home.
There would be quite another sort of wedding, and by the evening train
we would leave for the Continent. Every detail was arranged for. We
met on the afternoon of the preceding day. I put my whole fate to the
test, and Cynthia never wavered. We arranged to meet at two o'clock
next day.

On the morning itself, just before noon, I hurried out from my lodging
upon a final errand, intending to change my clothes and lock my bags,
upon my return, within hal