In vain; he had to keep his "attention fixed" on this point for the next
three-quarters of an hour. So as Miss Manners was at the other side
of me, and Scroope, unhampered by the presence of any prospective
mother-in-law, was at the other side of her, for all practical purposes
Miss Holmes and I were left alone.

She began by saying:

"I hear you beat Sir Junius Fortescue out shooting to-day, and won a lot
of money from him which you gave to the Cottage Hospital. I don't like
shooting, and I don't like betting; and it's strange, because you don't
look like a man who bets. But I detest Sir Junius Fortescue, and that is
a bond of union between us."

"I never said I detested him."

"No, but I am sure you do. Your face changed when I mentioned his name."

"As it happens, you are right. But, Miss Holmes, I should like you to
understand that you were also right when you said I did not look like a
betting man." And I told her some of the story of Van Koop and the £250.

"Ah!" she said, when I had finished, "I always felt sure he was a
horror. And my mother wanted me, just because he pretended to be low
church--but that's a secret."

Then I congratulated her upon her approaching marriage, saying what
a joyful thing it was now and again to see everything going in real,
happy, storybook fashion: beauty, male and female, united by love, high