escaped
it in his first disturbance, also connected with a flower. There came
before him the vision of a London square, and of a tall, pale girl, in
an antique dress, giving a rose to a man in knight's armour, which rose
both of them kissed simultaneously. Of course, when he saw it he had
ruled out the rose and only thought of the kisses, although, now that
he came to think of it, a rose is of a much thicker texture than a
lily. As he had witnessed that little scene, and drawn his own
conclusions, so others had witnessed another little scene that
afternoon, and made therefrom deductions which, in his innocent soul,
he knew to be totally false. Suppose, then, that _his_ deductions were
also false. Oh! it was not possible. Besides, a barrier built of rose
leaves was not sufficient, which again, with perfect justice, he
remembered was exactly what Brother Smith and Professor Petersen had
thought of one composed of lily petals.

There for the time the matter ended. Juliette reappeared on the morrow
quite cured of her headache, and as gay and charming as ever. Possibly
she had confided in her mamma, who had told her that after all things
were not so terrible, even if they _had_ been seen.

At any rate, the equilibrium was restored. Godfrey acted on his solemn
resolutions of haughtiness and detachment for quite an hour, after
which Juliette threw a kitten at him and asked what was the matter, and
then sang him one of her pretty _chansonettes_ to the accompaniment of
a guitar with three strings, which closed the incident. Still there
were no more flower hunts and no new adventures. Tacitly, but
completely, everything of the sort was dropped out of their
relationship. They remained excellent friends, on affectionate terms
indeed, but that was all.

Meanwhile, owing to his doubts arising out of a singular coincidence
concerned with flowers and kisses, Godfrey gradually made up his mind
to write to Isobel. Indeed, he had half composed the epistle when at
the end of one of his brief letters his father informed him that she
had gone to Mexico with her uncle. So it came about that it was never
posted, since it is a kind of superstition with young people that
letters can only be delivered at the place where the addressee last
resided. It rarely occurs to them that these may be forwarded, and
ultimately arrive. Nor, indeed, did it occur to Godfrey that as
Isobel's uncle was the British Minister to a certain country, an
envelope ad