be a consideration. But, that the Professor,
when providing her with one paper, should have chosen a halfpenny
instead of a penny paper, seemed to hold a curious significance, and
called up sudden swift memories of the Boy. He would have bought
_Punch_, the _Graphic_, the _Illustrated_, the _Spectator_, and a
_Morning Post_, plumped them all down on the seat in front of her; then
sat beside her, and talked, the whole journey through, so that she
would not have had a moment in which to open one of them.

(Oh, Boy dear! Don't look at this _Daily Mirror_. You might misjudge
the good Professor. With your fifty thousand a year, how can you be
expected to understand a mind which _must_ consider ha'pence, even when
brides and wedding journeys are concerned. _Do_ keep away, Boy dear.
This is not your wedding journey.)

Then she opened the _Daily Mirror_, and there looked out at her, from
its central page, the merry, handsome, daring face of her own Little
Boy Blue!

He was seated in his flying machine, steering-wheel in hand, looking
out from among many wires. His cap was on the back of his head; his
bright eyes looked straight into hers; his firm lips, parted in a
smile, seemed to be saying: "I jolly well mean to do it." Beneath was
an account of him, and a description of the flight he was to attempt on
that day, across the Channel, circling round Boulogne Cathedral, and
back. He was to start at two o'clock. At that very moment he must be
in mid-air.

Oh, Little Boy Blue! Little Boy Blue! You have a way of making hearts
stand still.

* * * * *

The boarding-house proved to be a place decidedly conducive to the
taking of a fresh-air cure; because nobody remained within its four
walls, if the weather could possibly admit of their going out.

As soon as Christobel and the Professor had taken tea, and replied to
Miss Slinker's many questions, they went out to walk on the Leas until
sunset. It was a radiant afternoon, and the strong wind which had
suddenly arisen, blowing, in unexpected gusts, from the sea, acted as a
tonic to weary heart and brain. Christobel, holding on her hat as she
walked, battled her way beside the Professor, up a cross street, into
the Sandgate Road.

There they went to the telegraph office, and sent Miss Ann news of
their safe arrival, and of the extreme comfort they felt sure of
experiencing at Miss Slinker's delightful abode. (This was the
Professor's wo