The Splendid Folly

, jump in! Luggag

, the guard's whistle shrieked, and an instant later the train started with a jerk that sent Diana stag

just as she was driving to the station, and her taxi had been held up for the full ten minutes' grace which she

lanced about her to make sure that she had not mislaid any of her hand baggage in her frantic haste, and this point being settled to h

her presence. On his knee rested a quarto writing-pad, and he appeared so much absorbed in what he wa

t blue eyes, looked at her for a moment with a half-startled glance, and then, with the barest flicker of a smile, had le

antly felt a friendly interest in him. She liked, too, the shape of the hand that held the fountain-pen; it was a slender, sensitive-looking member with well-kept nails, and Diana always appreciated nice hands. The man's head was bent over his work, so that she could

encountered a big broad label, pasted on to the glass, with the word "Reserved" printed on it in capital letters. The letters, of cours

y of some one's reserved compartment that some one being the man opposite. What a horrible predicament!

he corner ra

ferently. "Please do not distress yourself. I believe t

e of familiarity, but she was too preoccupied to dwell on it, and bega

stiffly, and made her way out int

mpartment was packed with people hurrying out of t

ly. "Every seat is taken. I'm afr

she held, made a frantic clutch at the rack above her head, while her goods and chattels shot across the floor,

and retrieved her belongings, pla

had taken my advice," he observe

reasonably an

I told you so' at on

smile cros

did, di

f with one hand against the doorway, and her ill-humour van

ere quite right, too," s

ghed o

ne woman in twenty will own h

a fr

"Men have a ridiculous way of lumping all wom

nd scarcely waiting for her permission, he deliberately

busy writing,"

he direction of his writing-pad, wh

es there are better things to do than

and she had never before committed such a breach of the conventions-would have been shocked at the bare idea of it-but there was something ra

es watching her with a glint

ed to do a thing. And don't you think"-still with that flicker of laughter in his eyes-"that it's rather ridiculous, when tw

hin himself he was ridiculing her prim little not

ppose so," s

d to und

absurd conventions by which we cut ourselves off from many an hour of pleasant intercourse-just

turned Diana hastily.

d. I shall behave quit

it before-that crisp, unslurred enunciation, with its keen perception of syllabic

of a blustering March day, and of a girl, a man, and an errand-boy, careering wildly in the roadway of a London street, while some stray sheets of music went whirling hither and thither in the wind. It had all happened a year ago, on that critic

e met before, hav

suddenly from his face and an expre

not," h

ut a year ago. I was carrying some music, and it all blew

ok his

be mistaken," he a

d you have betrayed a keen and vivid recollection of a man who has apparently forgotten that he ever set e

ding the polite ne

e one else. I should not be likely

and self-conscious and horribly young; he himself was so essentially of the polished type of cosmopolitan that beside him she felt herself to be as raw and crude as any bread-and-butter miss

from the restaurant car came along the corridor and looked in to ask if

evidently taking them to be t

ten him when her vis-à-vi

for consent, for something passed unobtrusively from his hand to that of the attendant, and

ster than she could have wished, but she hardly knew how t

e if I pay for

nge of surprise in his tones, and once again Diana, felt that sh

confusion, he began to talk, passing easily from one subject to another until she had regai

er she paused, aghast

hink me!" she exclaimed. "I've been tal

is the finest teacher in the world. You must have a very beautiful voice for h

y. "I expect it was more that I had the luck

don't they?" he said, smiling as t

ow him?" asked

; it was as though a shutter had descended

"So now you are on your way home for a well-earned holiday? Your people must be lookin

ni"-laughingly-"was horror-stricken at my Italian, so he insisted. But I have no people-not really, you kno

ery old now,"

," she answer

" he acknowledged,

their coffee on the table without spilling a drop, despite the swaying

smoke?"

the cigarett

e said, hesitating a little. "Do you

t-grey eyes, like a couple of stars between

s is just an hour's playtime that we have snatched out of li

t contract in a mos

!" she exclaimed, wi

lit her cigarette, and for an instant their fingers touched. His teeth came dow

now," insisted Diana,

ach other in the most ex

we shal

If I thought that we should-"

me again!" exclaimed Diana, with a note

t we wanted in this world! Though, I mustn't complain-I have had

make it last you for the rema

e to," he an

compartment, and noticing that she looked rather white and tired, he

might be carried past my station and find myself heaven knows wh

he suggested. "Where d

, where I'm going. Do you know it at all? It's a tiny

ment. At last, apparently coming to a decision of some kind, he said

you?" she a

rel

er, one narrow foot resting lightly on the instep of the other, and she looked

n," she acquiesced,

vercoat, went hack to his former corner, where he picked up the negl

as she lay there, with the faint shadows of fatigue beneath her closed eyes-there was something appealing about her very helplessness. Presently

her caught his breath sharply betwixt his teeth. Then, with an almost im

win globes of light high up in the carriage ceiling

fancy took them. And half a mile ahead on the permanent way, Death stood watching-watching and waiting where, by some hideous accident of fate, a faulty coupling-rod had snapped a