id
not bear out the selection?"

"In her case, I should say it suits her admirably. She's a topping good
sort."

"Is she pretty?"

"My chum used to think so, but not I. She's good to look at, anyway, and
there's something straight and clean about her that does a fellow good.
She has fine eyes and nice teeth which go far towards beauty."

"I wonder what she could have written about, to upset my sister so
completely?"

They wondered together, and grew more confidential over their mutual
interest in the subject. Jack enjoyed every minute of the meal, trying
to imagine he was dining with his wife,--an idea full of charm.

After dinner was over and Kitty had satisfied herself that Joyce was no
worse, they strolled in the hotel gardens, at the corner of which was a
summer-house. Jack who was trembling from head to foot with impatience
and longing, drew her suddenly within where the shadows were darkening,
and blurted out his tale of consuming passion. "Can't you see it without
the need of words? I am mad for love of you! If you don't want me, in
mercy say so, and I shall go out there and drown myself."

He would have said a great deal more, only there was no need, for Kitty
confessed that she wanted him more than anything on earth, and was only
waiting for the initiative to come from him.

Her frank response enraptured Jack, and he caught her to his breast
inarticulate with joy, while she, free of artificial coyness,
surrendered herself to his embrace and gave him her sweet lips again and
again.

Jack felt that he would have liked to have kicked himself all round
Eastbourne for imagining that he had ever before known what it was to
love! This was the real thing, and the bliss of it was unspeakable.

"And why didn't you give me the least bit of inkling that you had a soft
corner in your heart for a blighter like me?" he asked when it was
possible to indulge in connected conversation.

"Why did you take so long to know your own mind?"

"My mind was made up the instant I found out that you were not Mrs.
Meredith the afternoon I met you in front of the booking-office at
Victoria. You surely have not forgotten our very first meeting? I could
tell you in detail what you wore!"

Of course she had not, though she feigned to seem retrospective.

"I believe you were wearing a shot brown tie," she ventured, perfectly
aware that she was correct.

"You remember that?" (An interlude of ecstasy.) "I went all the way to
R