ard and were screened by the porch from the
wondering eyes of Mr. Caryll.

He turned from the window with a sigh, and stepped back to the table for
the tinder-box, that for the eleventh time he might relight his pipe.
He sat down, blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling, and considered. His
nature triumphed now over his recent preoccupation; the matter of the
moment, which concerned him not at all, engrossed him beyond any other
matter of his life. He was intrigued to know in what relation one to the
other stood the three so oddly assorted travellers he had seen arrive.
He bethought him that, after all, the odd assortment arose from the
presence of the parson; and he wondered what the plague should any
Christian--and seemingly a gentleman at that--be doing travelling with a
parson. Then there was the wild speed at which they had come.

The matter absorbed and vexed him. I fear he was inquisitive by nature.
There came a moment when he went so far as to consider making his way
below to pursue his investigations in situ. It would have been at great
cost to his dignity, and this he was destined to be spared.

A knock fell upon his door, and the landlady came in. She was genial,
buxom and apple-faced, as becomes a landlady.

"There is a gentleman below--" she was beginning, when Mr. Caryll
interrupted her.

"I would rather that you told me of the lady," said

"La, sir!" she cried, displaying ivory teeth, her eyes cast upwards,
hands upraised in gentle, mirthful protest. "La, sir! But I come from
the lady, too."

He looked at her. "A good ambassador," said he, "should begin with the
best news; not add it as an afterthought. But proceed, I beg. You give
me hope, mistress."

"They send their compliments, and would be prodigiously obliged if you
was to give yourself the trouble of stepping below."

"Of stepping below?" he inquired, head on one side, solemn eyes upon
the hostess. "Would it be impertinent to inquire what they may want with
me?"

"I think they want you for a witness, sir."

"For a witness? Am I to testify to the lady's perfection of face and
shape, to the heaven that sits in her eyes, to the miracle she calls
her ankle? Are these and other things besides of the same kind what I
am required to witness? If so, they could not have sent for one more
qualified. I am an expert, ma'am."

"Oh, sir, nay!" she laughed. "'Tis a marriage they need you for."

Mr. Caryll opened his queer eyes a little wider. "Soho!"