cate a
matter, I--I-- [_He maunders._

_Hyp._ MAUD, why _will_ you be so headstrong! (_In a rapid whisper._)
Can't you see ... can't you _guess_?...

_Maud._ I guess I want to make sure Mr. CULCHARD isn't that kind of
magnanimous man himself. I shouldn't want him to renounce _me_!

_Hyp._ MAUD! You might at _least_ wait until Mr. CULCHARD has--

_Maud._ Oh, but he _did_--weeks ago, at Bingen. And at Lugano, too,
the other day, he spoke out tolerable plain. I guess he didn't wish
any secret made about it--_did_ you, Mr. CULCHARD?

_Culch._ I--ah--this conversation is rather ... If you'll excuse me--
[_Escapes with as much dignity as he can command._

_Maud._ Well, my dear,--that's the sort of self-denying hairpin _he_
is! What do you think of him _now_?

_Hyp._ I do not think so highly of him, I confess. His renunciation
was evidently less prompted by consideration for his friend than by a
recollection--tardy enough, I am afraid--of the duty which bound him
to _you_, dearest. But if you had seen and heard him, as I did, you
would not have doubted the _reality_ of the sacrifice, whatever the
true reason may have been. For myself, I am conscious of neither anger
nor sorrow--my heart, as I told you, was never really affected. But
what must it be to _you_, darling!

_Maud._ Well, I believe I'm more amused than anything.

_Hyp._ Amused! But surely you don't mean to have anything more to do
with him?

_Maud._ My dear girl, I intend to have considerable more to do with
him before I'm through. He's under vow for _me_ now, anyway, and I
don't mean he should forget it, either. He's my monkey, and he's got
to jump around pretty lively, at the end of a tolerable short chain,
too. And I guess, if it comes to renouncing, all the magnanimity's
going to be on _my_ side this time!

_IN AN AVENUE._

_Culch._ (_to himself, as he walks hurriedly on_). I only saved myself
in time. I don't _think_ MAUD noticed anything--she couldn't nave been
so innocent and indifferent if she had.... And HYPATIA won't enlighten
her any further now--after what she knows. It's rather a relief that
she _does_ know.... She took it very well, poor girl--_very_ well.
I expect she is really beginning to put up with PODBURY--I'm sure I
_hope_ so, sincerely!

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

[Illustration]

"I dearly love reading a ghost-story," quoth the Baron, "when, as the
song says, 'The lights are low, And the