own, at our first meeting, impressed me in a
manner only to be understood by those who
have tested the imponderable essences in the
crucible of rational experiment. For do not
imagine that the meeting of our eyes on the
occasion I refer to was accidental. A powerful
magnetic impulse compelled me, as it were, to
look round the partition, and I was in no wise
astonished to find your look awaiting mine. It
is useless, my unknown friend, to contend
against these occult influences. In that
conviction, I have laid aside, in some measure, the
reserves of my sex, and permitted this interview.
I did, indeed, make some effort to contravene
the decrees of fate, since, destined as we
probably are, utimately, for each other, I yet foresee
difficulties to be encountered, obstacles to
be reduced, prejudices overcome. In short, I
—Hark! I fear we are about to be interrupted.
You may approach the window for one moment,
but do not utter a word."

I had been dying with curiosity to see the
speaker more distinctly, for the voice was silver-
sweet as Juliet's own; and, without waiting to
consult my principal, made but three paces to
the window, concealing my features as I might.
One glance at the face that bent over the
window-sill sufficed to assure me that Bob had not
been romancing. I had never seen anything
lovelier in woman. The stars that had begun to
gather over us seemed to reflect themselves for
an instant in those eyes that gazed down on me.

A hand glistened out from the darkness; it
was not very far from my lips; it presently
became nearer; it was soft, and white, and
rather plump, that hand, and it bore a sapphire—
poor counterfeit of the glittering eyes above.

"Wednesday week. The Botanical. Across
the rhododendrons" was whispered hurriedly.
There was a burst of light in the apartment.
Back I skipped to covert.

"Across the rhododendrons! Why across—?"
began Bob, discontentedly.

"Ingrate! Can anything be more fortunate?
Your rhododendron I take to be a plant of
considerable volume. Protected by one of these,
you might, were you as fat as your maternal
ancestor himself, hold converse with your
princess as lightly and unconcernedly as though
you had the waist of a wasp."

Robert assented, and we walked home, highly
delighted with the prospect of affairs.

Wednesday week, according to Botanical
tradition, proved a day of terrific storm and
tempest. Tents there were, indeed, but, from the
spouting, dropping, and drizzling in all
directions under their fictitious shelter, one might
have imagined it rather an interesting display of
waterworks provided by the society.

The crowd was immense, and as Bob, regardless
of long dresses, fought his desperate way to
the region of rhododendrons, the eyes of more
than one fair train-carrier spoke those daggers
it is not considered polite to use. I followed,
but not closely, as Bob was, on this occasion,
both to show and speak for himself.

Suddenly I noticed my friend stop dead short;
a change came over his really handsome face,
the colour mounting to the roots of his hair.
Following his gaze, I saw the beautiful face
that had fascinated him come slowly into view,
as if rising from a nest of flowers. It greeted
him with a frank, sweet smile, after which an
animated conversation ensued, a tall hedge of
rich blossoms alone separating the pair. This
lasted nearly half an hour, at the end of which
the lovely head subsided into the crowd, and was
seen no more.

Bob came back to me hopelessly enslaved and
slightly incoherent.

"She is all that man's soul could covet,
old fellow. Oh, George, George! Sweet enthusiast!
Is it not wretched—is it not frightful,
sir? Condemned to an inalienable inheritance
of obesity! Tied to this unwieldly log of a
body! But she loves me, George—she loves
me! We shall meet. What do you think is
our next rendezvous? The lecture-room of the
Polytechnic—the dissolving views! Now, can
anything be luckier? Totally dark. She will
be in the second seat from the back, just
perceptible, in a white lace mantilla. We are to
correspond, too, at pleasure, for it seems that
she is perfectly free to act as she pleases, except
in being confined to these odd ways of meeting,
which, however, suit me, for the present,
admirably."

"Independent, and yet unable to receive you
openly. Did she offer no sort of explanation?"

"Spoke vaguely of 'reasons,' merely remarking
that, were I acquainted with them, I should
allow them every weight."

"You might have retorted, Bob."

"She talked, too," said he, "in her sweet,
fanciful way, you know, of the width, or breadth,
of some barrier which at present keeps us
asunder."

"My dear Bob, rely upon it she has seen
you."'

"Impossible!" said Bob. "I have never
been off my guard. The precautions I have
taken would baffle Robert-Houdin himself. At
parting, she gave me a word of consolation.
'Though mountains rose between us,' said the
sweet girl, with her bewitching smile, 'the
spirit of love shall reduce them into smoothest
lawns.'"

"Mountains! Bob, this woman is quizzing
you."

"Does this look like quizzing?" asked Bob,
reverently producing a silken tress, about two
feet long, wrapped in silver paper. "She passed
it through the pelargoniums."

"The what?"

"The flowers," replied Bob, generally.

I saw my friend no more till after the meeting
at the Polytechnic, of which he gave me a
succinct account. Obscure as it was, he at once
detected the glimmer of the white mantilla. The
white mantilla was attended by two sister-robes
of grey, one of which appeared to yield place to
the opaque shadow that approached them in the
person of Bob.

A little cool hand was ready to welcome him,