himself, 'it would have been called at least "saucy"--but Mammon's
elect ones may do anything. Well--here I come, limping to my new
tyrant's feet, like Goethe's bear to Lili's.'

She drew him away, as women only know how, from the rest of the
party, who were chatting and laughing with Claude. She had shown
off her fancied indifference to Lancelot before them, and now began
in a softer voice--

'Why will you be so shy and lonely, Mr. Smith?'

'Because I am not fit for your society.'

'Who tells you so? Why will you not become so?'

Lancelot hung down his head.

'As long as fish and game are your only society, you will become
more and more morne and self-absorbed.'

'Really fish were the last things of which I was thinking when you
came. My whole heart was filled with the beauty of nature, and
nothing else.'

There was an opening for one of Argemone's preconcerted orations.

'Had you no better occupation,' she said gently, 'than nature, the
first day of returning to the open air after so frightful and
dangerous an accident? Were there no thanks due to One above?'