y
absolute decision. Good-night!"

With anger and happiness struggling in my breast for the mastery, I
paced that deck for hours. My heart swelled with joy at the knowledge
that my darling loved me, but it sank like lead when I considered the
difficulties which threatened us if her father persisted in his present
determination. At last, just as eight bells was striking (twelve
o'clock), I went below to my cabin. My fellow-passenger was fast
asleep--a fact which I was grateful for when I discovered propped
against my bottle-rack a tiny envelope with my name upon it. Tearing it
open I read the following:--

"MY OWN DEAREST,--

"My father has just informed me of his interview with you. I cannot
understand it or ascribe a reason for it. But whatever happens,
remember that I will be your wife, and the wife of no other.

"May God bless and keep you always.
"Your own,
"PHYLLIS.

"P.S.--Before we leave the ship you must let me know your address
in London."

With such a letter under my pillow, can it be doubted that my dreams
were good? Little I guessed the accumulation of troubles to which this
little unpleasantness with Mr. Wetherell was destined to be the prelude!

CHAPTER II

LONDON

Now that I come to think the matter out, I don't know that I could give
you any definite idea of what my first impressions of London were. One
thing at least is certain, I had never had experience of anything
approaching such a city before, and, between ourselves, I can't say that
I ever want to again. The constant rush and roar of traffic, the crowds
of people jostling each other on the pavements, the happiness and the
misery, the riches and the poverty, all mixed up together in one jumble,
like good and bad fruit in a basket, fairly took my breath away; and
when I went down, that first afternoon, and saw the Park in all its
summer glory, my amazement may be better imagined than described.

I could have watched the carriages, horsemen, and promenaders for hours
on end without any sense of weariness. And when a bystander, seeing that
I was a stranger, took compassion upon my ignorance and condescended to
point out to me the various celebrities present, my pleasure was
complete. There certainly is no place like London for show and glitter,
I'll grant you that; but all the same I'd no more think of taking up my
permanent abode in it than I'd try to cross the Atlantic in a Chinese