, turning it over and over in my mind, and trying to convince
myself as to what was best to be done. Then my uncle told me you were
coming down here, and I resolved to put the case before you as I have
done and to ask your opinion."

She gave me her little hand, and I took it and held it in my own. Then I
released it and we strode back along the garden-path together without
another word. The afternoon was well advanced by this time, and when we
reached the summer-house, where Codd was still reading, we found that a
little wicker tea-table had been brought out from the house and that
chairs had been placed for us round it. To my thinking there is nothing
that becomes a pretty woman more than the mere commonplace act of
pouring out tea. It was certainly so in this case. When I looked at the
white cloth upon the table, the heavy brass tray, and the silver jugs
and teapot, and thought of my own cracked earthenware vessel, then
reposing in a cupboard in my office, and in which I brewed my cup of tea
every afternoon, I smiled to myself. I felt that I should never use it
again without recalling this meal. After that I wondered whether it
would ever be my good fortune to sit in this garden again, and to sip my
Orange Pekoe from the same dainty service. The thought that I might not
do so was, strangely enough, an unpleasant one, and I put it from me
with all promptness. During the meal, Kitwater scarcely uttered a word.
We had exhausted the probabilities of the case long since, and I soon
found that he could think or talk of nothing else. At six o'clock I
prepared to make my adieux. My train left Bishopstowe for London at the
half-hour, and I should just have time to walk the distance comfortably.
To my delight my hostess decided to go to church, and said she would
walk with me as far as the lych-gate. She accordingly left us and went
into the house to make her toilet. As soon as she had gone Kitwater
fumbled his way across to where I was sitting, and having discovered a
chair beside me, seated himself in it.

"Mr. Fairfax," said he, "I labour under the fear that you cannot
understand my position. Can you realize what it is like to feel shut up
in the dark, waiting and longing always for only one thing? Could you
not let me come to Paris with you to-morrow?"

"Impossible," I said. "It is out of the question. It could not be
thought of for a moment!"

"But why not? I can see no difficulty in it?"

"If for no other reason bec