arcely put it more appropriately. It is my rule of life to
do whatever I find to do with all my might. I believe, indeed, that the
bearings became red hot. Finally one of the wheels jammed together. A
side wheel it was, so that its stoppage necessitated an inversion of the
entire apparatus,--an inversion in which I participated."

"Meaning, that you went over?" said Mr. Hoopdriver, suddenly much
amused.

"Precisely. And not brooking my defeat, I suffered repeatedly. You may
understand, perhaps, a natural impatience. I expostulated--playfully,
of course. Happily the road was not overlooked. Finally, the entire
apparatus became rigid, and I abandoned the unequal contest. For all
practical purposes the tricycle was no better than a heavy chair without
castors. It was a case of hauling or carrying."

The clergyman's nutriment appeared in the doorway.

"Five miles," said the clergyman. He began at once to eat bread and
butter vigorously. "Happily," he said, "I am an eupeptic, energetic sort
of person on principle. I would all men were likewise."

"It's the best way," agreed Mr. Hoopdriver, and the conversation gave
precedence to bread and butter.

"Gelatine," said the clergyman, presently, stirring his tea
thoughtfully, "precipitates the tannin in one's tea and renders it easy
of digestion."

"That's a useful sort of thing to know," said Mr. Hoopdriver.

"You are altogether welcome," said the clergyman, biting generously at
two pieces of bread and butter folded together.

In the afternoon our two wanderers rode on at an easy pace towards
Stoney Cross. Conversation languished, the topic of South Africa being
in abeyance. Mr. Hoopdriver was silenced by disagreeable thoughts. He
had changed the last sovereign at Ringwood. The fact had come upon him
suddenly. Now too late he was reflecting upon his resources. There was
twenty pounds or more in the post office savings bank in Putney, but his
book was locked up in his box at the Antrobus establishment. Else this
infatuated man would certainly have surreptitiously withdrawn the entire
sum in order to prolong these journeyings even for a few days. As it
was, the shadow of the end fell across his happiness. Strangely enough,
in spite of his anxiety and the morning's collapse, he was still in a
curious emotional state that was certainly not misery. He was forgetting
his imaginings and posings, forgetting himself altogether in his growing
appreciation of his companion. The mo