told her of his life on the veldt, and mentioned that he
was returning to England on business. On the outcome of that same
business would depend the question whether he remained in England, or
whether he returned to the veldt. Having the solicitor's injunction in
view, he naturally did not volunteer further information. Such details,
too, sank into insignificance before the more absorbing interest of
personality. They are, after all, in a sense, mere accidents, and have no
more to do with the real man than the clothes he wears. True, the manner
in which one dons one's clothes, as the manner in which one deals with
the accidental facts of life, affords a certain index to the true man;
but the clothes themselves, and the accidental facts, appear, at all
events, to be matters of fate. And if you can obtain knowledge of a man
through actual contact with his personality, you do not trouble to draw
conclusions from his method of donning his clothes. You may speculate in
this fashion with regard to strangers, or mere acquaintances. You have a
surer, and infinitely more interesting, fashion with your friends.

Life around them moved on in the leisurely, almost indolent manner in
which it does move on board a passenger ship. The younger members played
quoits, cricket on the lower deck, and inaugurated concerts, supported by
a gramaphone, the property of the chief officer, and banjo solos by the
captain. The older members read magazines, played bridge, or knitted
woollen articles, according to the promptings of their sex and their
various natures, and formed audiences at the aforementioned concerts.

Antony and the Duchessa di Donatello alone seemed somewhat aloof from
them. They formed part of the concert audiences, it is true; but they
neither played bridge, quoits, nor cricket, nor knitted woollen articles,
nor read magazines. The Duchessa employed her time with a piece of fine
lace work, when she was not merely luxuriating in the sunshine, or
conversing with Antony. Antony either conversed with the Duchessa, or sat
in his deck chair, smoking and thinking about her. There was certainly a
distinct sameness about the young man's occupation, which, however, he
found not in the smallest degree boring. On the contrary, it was
all-absorbing and fascinating. The very hours of the day were timed by
the Duchessa's movements, rather than by the mere minute portions of
steel attached to the face of a commonplace watch. Thus:--

Dawn. H