off soon. There's a
rehearsal of my play this morning...."

"I say, Gilbert," Henry interrupted, "do you think I ought to go and
join this Irish Renascence business?"

"How can I tell? It probably won't amount to much. I should take an
intelligent interest in it, if I were you. Perhaps you can induce Marsh
to come over and talk to the Improved Tories about it. What are you
doing this morning?"

"Oh, working!"

"Well, so long!"

"So long, Gilbert. You'll be back to lunch, I suppose?"

"I don't think so. The rehearsals are very long now. You see, the play's
to be done on Wednesday...."

2

When Gilbert had gone, Henry, having glanced through the _Times_, went
up to his room and began to write, but he did not continue at his
manuscript for very long. The words would not roll lightly off his pen:
they fell off and lay inertly about the paper. He was accustomed now to
periods during which his mind seemed to have lost its power to operate,
and he was not alarmed by them. He knew that it was useless to attempt
to do any work that morning, so he left his room and, telling Mrs.
Clutters that he would not return to lunch, went out of the house and
wandered about the streets for a while without any purpose. It was not
until he saw the sign on a passing motor-'bus that he decided on what he
should do. "Hyde Park Corner" was on the sign, and he called to the
conductor and presently mounted to the roof of the 'bus and was driven
towards the Park.

"I wonder," he thought to himself, "whether I shall see Lady Cecily
to-day!"

Lady Cecily had curiously disappeared from their lives. Gilbert,
absorbed in the production of his play, had not spoken of her again, nor
had he made any mention of his proposal to leave London and go to
Anglesey. He had resigned from the staff of the _Daily Echo_, and, since
he no longer attended first-nights at the theatre, he had not seen Lady
Cecily since the night on which "The Ideal Husband" was revived. Henry
had said to himself on several occasions that he would go and see Lady
Cecily, but he had not done so. He did not care to go alone, and he
cared less to ask Gilbert to go with him ... but to-day, as suddenly as
she had quitted his thoughts, Lady Cecily came into them again, and, as
he sat on top of the omnibus, he hoped that he would see her in the
Park. "If not," he said to himself, "I'll call on her this afternoon!"

He descended from the 'bus at Hyde Park Corner and hastily entered