his club, a single line, which he considered to
be appropriate to the mysterious necessities of the occasion. "I will
be with you at a quarter to six to-morrow.--J. E. Just returned."
There was not another word; and as he scrawled it at one of the club
tables while two or three men were talking to him, he felt rather
proud of his correspondence. "It was capital fun," he said; "and
after all,"--the "all" on this occasion being Lily Dale, and the
sadness of his disappointment at Allington,--"after all, let a fellow
be ever so down in the mouth, a little amusement should do him good."
And he reflected further that the more a fellow be "down in the
mouth," the more good the amusement would do him. He sent off his
note, therefore, with some little inward rejoicing,--and a word or
two also of spoken rejoicing. "What fun women are sometimes," he
said to one of his friends,--a friend with whom he was very intimate,
calling him always Fred, and slapping his back, but whom he never by
any chance saw out of his club.

"What's up now, Johnny? Some good fortune?"

"Good fortune, no. I never have good fortune of that kind. But I've
got hold of a young woman,--or rather a young woman has got hold of
me, who insists on having a mystery with me. In the mystery itself
there is not the slightest interest. But the mysteriousness of it
is charming. I have just written to her, three words to settle
an appointment for to-morrow. We don't sign our names lest the
Postmaster-General should find out all about it."

"Is she pretty?"

"Well;--she isn't ugly. She has just enough of good looks to make the
sort of thing pass off pleasantly. A mystery with a downright ugly
young woman would be unpleasant."

After this fashion the note from Miss Demolines had been received,
and answered at once, but the other letters remained in his pocket
till he reached his office on the following morning. Sir Raffle had
begged him to be there at half-past nine. This he had sworn he would
not do; but he did seat himself in his room at ten minutes before
ten, finding of course the whole building untenanted at that early
hour,--that unearthly hour, as Johnny called it himself. "I shouldn't
wonder if he really is here this morning," Johnny said, as he entered
the building, "just that he may have the opportunity of jumping on
me." But Sir Raffle was not there, and then Johnny began to abuse
Sir Raffle. "If I ever come here early to meet him again, because he
says