s us."

But the great surgeon did nothing of the sort. On the contrary he
said:--"I saw it was you, Miss Dickenson." Then he reflected about her
companion, and said he was Mr. Pellew, he thought, and further:--"Met
you at Ancester in July." It was a great relief that he did _not_
say:--"You are a lady and gentleman, and can perhaps explain yourselves.
_I_ can't!" He appeared to decide on silence about _them_, as
irrelevant, and went on to something more to the purpose--"Perhaps you
know if the family are in town--any of them?" Miss Dickenson testified
to the whereabouts of Lady Gwendolen Rivers, and Sir Coupland wrote it
in a notebook. There seemed at this point to be an opportunity to say
how delightful the Gardens were this time of the year, so Miss Dickenson
seized it.

"I didn't come to enjoy the gardens," said the F.R.C.S. "I wish I had
time. I came to see to a broken scapula. Keeper in the Ostrich
House--bird pecked him from behind. Did it from love, apparently. Said
to be much attached to keeper. Two-hundred-and-two, Cavendish Square, is
right, isn't it?"

"Two-hundred-and-two; corner house.... Must you go on? Sorry!--you could
have told us such interesting things." The effect of this one word "us,"
indiscreetly used, was that Sir Coupland, walking away to his carriage
outside the turnstiles, wondered whether it would come off, and if it
did, would there be a family? Which shows how very careful you have to
be, when you are a lady and gentleman.

The former, in this case, remained unconscious of her _lapsus linguae_;
saying, in fact:--"I think we did that very well! I wonder whether he
will go and see Gwen!"

"I hope he will. Do you know, I couldn't help suspecting that he had
something to say about Torrens's eyesight--something good. Perhaps it
was only the way one has of catching at straws. Still, unless he has,
why should he want to see Gwen? He couldn't want to tell her there was
no hope--to rub it in!"

"I see what you mean. But I'm afraid he only put down the address for us
to tell her he did so--just to get the credit of a call without the
trouble."

"When did you take to Cynicism, madam?... No--come, I say--that's not
fair! It's only my second cigar since I came to the Gardens...." The
byplay needed to make this intelligible may be imagined, without
description.

Does not the foregoing lay further stress on the curious fact that the
_passee_ young lady and the oscillator between Pall Mall and t