faction as
he could enjoy in secret.

'I must put up with the fellow a little longer,' he thought. 'We will
go on mourning our dear lost friend together until I can arrange a
meeting somehow. A telegram or letter to the Ceylon plantation will
fetch him at any time, and I don't care about doing my charming Mabel
such a good turn as bringing him back to her just yet. I wonder how my
worthy plagiarist is feeling after last night. I think I will go round
and have a look at him.'

CHAPTER XXIV.

A MEETING IN GERMANY.

The summer went by, and Mark's anticipations of happiness were as
nearly borne out as such anticipations ever are. He and Mabel met
constantly. He saw her in the Row with her father and Dolly--and
sometimes had the bliss of exchanging a few words across the
railings--at dances and tennis-parties, and in most of the less
exclusive events of the season, while every interview left him more
deeply infatuated. She seemed always glad to see and talk with him,
allowing herself to express a decided interest in his doings, and
never once throwing on him the burden of a conversational deadlift in
the manner with which a girl knows how to discourage all but the
dullest of bores. Now and then, indeed, when Mark's conversation
showed symptoms of the occasional inanity common to most men who talk
much, she did not spare him; but this was due to a jealous anxiety on
her part that he should keep up to his own standard, and if she had
not liked him she would not have taken the trouble. He took her light
shafts so patiently and good-humouredly, too, that she was generally
seized by a contrition which expressed itself in renewed graciousness.
Already she had come to notice his arrival on lawns or in
drawing-rooms, and caught herself remembering his looks and words
after their meeting.

He was still busy with 'Sweet Bells Jangled,' for he had now decided
to make his _coup_ with that, but in other respects he was
unproductive. He had begun several little things in pursuance of his
engagements, but somehow he did not get on with them, and had to lay
them aside until the intellectual thaw he expected. Pecuniarily his
position was much improved; his uncle had kept his word, and put an
allowance at his disposal which made him tolerably easy about his
future. He removed to more fashionable quarters in South Audley
Street, and led the easy existence there he had long coveted. Still
Mr. Lightowler was an unpleasantly const