A Great Man

esses and a na?ve acolyte. Everything was done to make Henry an invalid in the grand manner. His bed of agony became the pivot on which the household life fl

back, the Fulham Vestry would certainly have received an

brief moments his mother and Aunt Annie enjoyed visions of fighting the grim spectre of Death. The tiny round pink spots covered his face and then ran together into a general vermilion. He coughed exquisitely. His beard grew. He supported life on black-currant tea and an atmosphere impregnated with eucalyptus. He underwent the examination of the doctor every day at eleven. But he was not personally and genuinely ill. He

told us about-when you are a little stron

k his head

said; 'I was

rite it quite nicely,

ed. 'No,' he said. 'I hope I shall have s

s the time!' ple

n inopportune intruder; but it had returned, and at length, to get rid for ever of this troublesome guest, he had instinctively related the outline of the tale over the tea-table. And the outline had been pronounced wonderful. 'It might be called Love in Babylon-Babylon bei

in the household washing-book with a lead pencil. Henry lay with his eyes closed. Mrs. Knight was out shopping.

answer the door?' Aunt Annie whis

rvants, got up, put the washing-book on the dressing-table, lighted the gas and

n the ground-floor had been rather exciting-and then they appeared together, be

Sir George Powell's hearty greetings and best wishes for a speedy r

said Henry, smiling, and feelin

gentleman,' sa

no harm in your having half a mince-tart; so we've warmed it. An

hese dainties were an unexpected bliss, for the ladies had not

ck by a sudden blow, g

ain I left the gas turn

it up,'

your temperature was a hundred and

t thing-just for a lark,

washing-book. And there, nearly at the top of a

C

ndern

in B

. The marvellous man had covered

tive power concealed somewhere in the recesses of his vital parts. Fortified by two halves of a mince-tart and several slices of Sir George's turkey, he filled the washing-book full up before dusk on Christmas Day; and on Boxing Day, despite the faint admiring protests of his nurses, he made a considerable hole in a quire of the best ruled essay-paper. Instead of

an thus, the first line consisting of a s

byl

in wi

a great company alone permitted to its passengers. Outside resounded the roar and shriek of trains, the ceaseless ebb and flow of the human tide which beats for ever on the shores of modern Babylon. Enid Anstruther gazed sadly into the embers. She had come to

ning sentences of

her teeth. His second was his heart. Enid obtained a situation, and Adrian took her to the Crystal Palace one Saturday afternoon. It was a pity that he had not already proposed to her, for they got separated in the tremendous Babylonian crowd, and Enid, unused to the intricacies of locomotion in Babylon, arrived home at the emporium at an ungodly hour on Sunday morning. She was dismiss

over the problem for more than about fifty seconds. Royal Academy. Private View. Adrian present thereat as a celebrity. Picture of the year, 'The Enchantress.' He recognises her port

ugh innocent of a crime imputed to him, had died in worldly disgrace. She could not consent to sully Adrian's reputation. Now, Adrian happened to be the real criminal. But he did not know that Enid's father had suffered for him, and he had honestly lived down that distant past. 'If there is a man in this world who has the right

on in

byl

e and astonishment. It was a matter of surprise to him that the writing of interesting and wholesome

to print,' he said one day, wh

aid his mother. 'I'm not a bit prejudiced, I'm sure, and I

tural modesty fighting against a sure

ine, fair Italian hand, keeping pace day by day with Henry's extraordin

ate, one might almost say taboo; and everything in his room, and everything that everyone had worn while in the room, was in the same condit

h into long strips about two inches wide. The sides and sash of the window were then hermetically sealed; the register of

k?' Mrs. Kni

sinfected with the other

ourse,' He

the sheets separately on the

knees, and laid them in numerical sequence on the floor. The initiatory 'Babylon' found itself in the corner between the

into the passage. Henry carefully ignited the sulphur, and, captain of the ship, was the last to leave. As they closed the door the odour of burning, microbe

!' sai

was

ulphur smouldering, smouldering always with ghostly yellow flamelets in t