You shall see, presently, what things might have happened if they had
not met. The meeting was, in fact, the second of the three really
important events in the life of a girl. The first, which is seldom
remembered with the gratitude which it deserves, is her birth; the
second, the first meeting with her future lover; the third, her
wedding-day; the other events of a woman's life are interesting,
perhaps, but not important.

Certain circumstances, which will be immediately explained, connected
with this meeting, made it an event of very considerable interest to
Iris, even though she did not suspect its immense importance. So much
interest that she thought of nothing else for a week beforehand; that
as the appointed hour drew near she trembled and grew pale; that when
her grandfather came up for his tea, she, who was usually so quick to
discern the least sign of care or anxiety in his face, actually did
not observe the trouble, plainly written in his drooping head and
anxious eyes, which was due to his interview with Mr. David Chalker.

She poured out the tea, therefore, without one word of sympathy. This
would have seemed hard if her grandfather had expected any. He did
not, however, because he did not know that the trouble showed in his
face, and was trying to look as if nothing had happened. Yet in his
brain were ringing and resounding the words, "Within three
weeks--within three weeks," with the regularity of a horrid clock at
midnight, when one wants to go to sleep.

"Oh," cried Iris, forced, as young people always are, to speak of her
own trouble, "oh, grandfather, he is coming to-night."

"Who is coming to-night, my dear?" and then he listened again for the