as carried on more by the force of suggestion and the weight
of public opinion than by any initiative of his own; a clear working
majority of his female relatives and the aforesaid matronly friends had
pitched on Joan Sebastable as the most suitable young woman in his range
of acquaintance to whom he might propose marriage, and James became
gradually accustomed to the idea that he and Joan would go together
through the prescribed stages of congratulations, present-receiving,
Norwegian or Mediterranean hotels, and eventual domesticity. It was
necessary, however to ask the lady what she thought about the matter; the
family had so far conducted and directed the flirtation with ability and
discretion, but the actual proposal would have to be an individual
effort.

Cushat-Prinkly walked across the Park towards the Sebastable residence in
a frame of mind that was moderately complacent. As the thing was going
to be done he was glad to feel that he was going to get it settled and
off his mind that afternoon. Proposing marriage, even to a nice girl
like Joan, was a rather irksome business, but one could not have a
honeymoon in Minorca and a subsequent life of married happiness without
such preliminary. He wondered what Minorca was really like as a place to
stop in; in his mind's eye it was an island in perpetual half-mourning,
with black or white Minorca hens running all over it. Probably it would
not be a bit like that when one came to examine it. People who had been
in Russia had told him that they did not remember having seen any Muscovy
ducks there, so it was possible that there would be no Minorca fowls on
the island.

His Mediterranean musings were interrupted by the sound of a clock
striking the half-hour. Half-past four. A frown of dissatisfaction
settled on his face. He would arrive at the Sebastable mansion just at
the hour of afternoon tea. Joan would be seated at a low table, spread
with an array of silver kettles and cream-jugs and delicate porcelain tea-
cups, behind which her voice would tinkle pleasantly in a series of
little friendly questions about weak or strong tea, how much, if any,
sugar, milk, cream, and so forth. "Is it one lump? I forgot. You do
take milk, don't you? Would you like some more hot water, if it's too
strong?"

Cushat-Prinkly had read of such things in scores of novels, and hundreds
of actual experiences had told him that they were true to life. Thousands
of women, at this