ng into contact with other potential Romeos--plenty of
them. Our own private opinion is that if the Montagus and Capulets had
tried to bury the hatchet at a public betrothal of the two young
people, the latter would have quarrelled on the spot. Setting their
family circles by the ears again would almost have been as much fun as
a secret wedding by a friar. You doubt it? Well, we may be wrong. But
we are quite certain that the events which followed shortly after the
chat between the two girls recorded above either would never have come
to pass, or would have taken an entirely different form, if it had not
been for the uncompromising character of Mrs. Sales Wilson's attitude
towards her daughter's Romeo.

We will give this collateral incident in our history a chapter to
itself, for your convenience more than our own. You can skip it, you
see, if you want to get back to Krakatoa Villa.

CHAPTER XXI

OF JULIUS BRADSHAW'S INNER SOUL. AND OF THE HABERDASHER'S BATTLE AT
LADBROKE GROVE ROAD. ON CARPET STRETCHING, AND VACCINATION FROM
THE CALF. AN AFTER-DINNER INTERVIEW, AND GOOD RESOLUTIONS. EVASIVE
TRAPPISTS

You can remember, if you are male and middle-aged, or worse, some
little incident in your own early life more or less like that
effervescence of unreal passion which made us first acquainted with
Mr. Julius Bradshaw and his violin. Do you shake your head, and deny
it? Are you prepared to look us in the face, and swear you never, when
a young man, had a sleepless night because of some girl whom you had
scarcely spoken to, and who would not have known who you were if you
had been able to master your trepidation and claim acquaintance; and
who, in the sequel, changed her identity, and became what the greatest
word-coiner of our time called a "speech-friend" of yours, without
a scrap of romance or tenderness in the friendship?

Sally's sudden change of identity from the bewitching little gardener
who had fascinated this susceptible youth, to a merely uncommonly nice
girl, was no doubt assisted by his introduction just at that moment
to the present Mrs. Julius Bradshaw. For it would be the merest
affectation to conceal the ultimate outcome of their acquaintance.

When Julius came to Krakatoa Villa, he came already half disillusioned
about Sally. What sort of an _accolade_ he expected on arriving to
keep his passion on its legs, Heaven only knows! He certainly had
been chilled by her easy-going invitation t