picious situation!... Ah, well;--in this way
I affect levity over my troubles; but in plain truth my life will not be
the brightest without her.'

'Don't be down-hearted! you are too--too gentlemanly, De Stancy, in
this matter--you are too soon put off--you should have a touch of the
canvasser about you in approaching her; and not stick at things. You
have my hearty invitation to travel with us all the way till we cross to
England, and there will be heaps of opportunities as we wander on. I'll
keep a slow pace to give you time.'

'You are very good, my friend! Well, I will try again. I am full of
doubt and indecision, mind, but at present I feel that I will try again.
There is, I suppose, a slight possibility of something or other turning
up in my favour, if it is true that the unexpected always happens--for
I foresee no chance whatever.... Which way do we go when we leave here
to-morrow?'

'To Carlsruhe, she says, if the rest of us have no objection.'

'Carlsruhe, then, let it be, with all my heart; or anywhere.'

To Carlsruhe they went next day, after a night of soft rain which
brought up a warm steam from the Schwarzwald valleys, and caused the
young tufts and grasses to swell visibly in a few hours. After the
Baden slopes the flat thoroughfares of 'Charles's Rest' seemed somewhat
uninteresting, though a busy fair which was proceeding in the
streets created a quaint and unexpected liveliness. On reaching the
old-fashioned inn in the Lange-Strasse that they had fixed on, the
women of the party betook themselves to their rooms and showed little
inclination to see more of the world that day than could be gleaned from
the hotel windows.

III.

While the malignant tongues had been playing havoc with Somerset's
fame in the ears of Paula and her companion, the young man himself was
proceeding partly by rail, partly on foot, below and amid the olive-clad
hills, vineyards, carob groves, and lemon gardens of the Mediterranean
shores. Arrived at San Remo he wrote to Nice to inquire for letters,
and such as had come were duly forwarded; but not one of them was from
Paula. This broke down his resolution to hold off, and he hastened
directly to Genoa, regretting that he had not taken this step when he
first heard that she was there.

Something in the very aspect of the marble halls of that city, which at
any other time he would have liked to linger over, whispered to him that
the bird had flown; and inquiry confirmed