she pointed to the prostrate figure of the ugly servant]
will tell Frederic everything.'

"'Come,' said I, '_I_ was only an accident; it would have been just as
bad if----'

"As I spoke I heard a step behind me. Turning round, I found myself
face to face with the young man with whom I had come in collision as I
rushed through the hall. He gazed at the servant--at me--at the girl
in blue.

"'Margaret!' he exclaimed, 'what is the----'

"'Hush, hush!' she whispered, pointing again to the servant.

"I stepped up to him, lifting my hat:

"'Sir,' said I, "kindly inform me if you are the gentleman who was to
come from England.'

"'Certainly I come from England,' he said.

"'And you ought to have arrived on Wednesday?'

"'Yes," he answered.

"'Then,' said I, 'all I have to say to you, sir, is--that I wish to the
devil you'd keep your appointments.' And I left them.

"That's why I'm not married, boys. Where's my glass?"

"It is a very curious story," observed the colonel. "And who were they
all--the girl in blue--and the young man--and the ugly servant--and
Frederic?"

"Colonel," said Jack, with an air of deepest mystery, "you would be
astounded to hear."

We all pricked up our ears.

"But," he continued, "I am not at liberty to say."

We sank back in our chairs.

"Do you know?" asked the colonel, and Jack nodded solemnly.

"Out with it!" we cried.

"Impossible!" said Jack. "But I may tell you that the matter engaged
the attention of more than one of the Foreign Offices of Europe."

"Good Heavens!" cried we in chorus, and Jack drank off his whisky and
water, rose to his feet, and put on his hat.

"Poor dear Mary!" said he, as he opened the door. "She never got over
it."

The colonel shouted after him:

"Then what did she marry Jenkyns of the Blues for?"

"Pique!" said Jack, and he shut the door.

III.

A CHANGE OF HEART.

It was common knowledge that Smugg was engaged to be married.

Familiarity had robbed the fact of some of its surprisingness, but
there remained a substratum of wonder, not removed even by the sight of
his betrothed's photograph and the information that she was a distant
relative who had been brought up with him from infancy. The features
and the explanation between them rescued Smugg from the incongruity of
a romance, but we united in the opinion that the lady was ill-advised
in preferring Smugg to solitude. Still, for all that he was a
ridiculous creature, s