heart, and he was confident in her great affection for him. It was
impossible that anything should arise to disturb the pleasant life
which they had planned together. His love cast a glamour upon his
work, and his work, by contrast, made love the more entrancing.

'We're going to fix the date of our marriage now,' he said. 'I'm buying
furniture already.'

'I think only English people could have behaved so oddly as you, in
postponing your marriage without reason for two mortal years.'

'You see, Margaret was ten when I first saw her, and only seventeen when
I asked her to marry me. She thought she had reason to be grateful to me
and would have married me there and then. But I knew she hankered after
these two years in Paris, and I didn't feel it was fair to bind her to me
till she had seen at least something of the world. And she seemed hardly
ready for marriage, she was growing still.'

'Did I not say that you were a matter-of-fact young man?' smiled Dr
Porhoët.

'And it's not as if there had been any doubt about our knowing our minds.
We both cared, and we had a long time before us. We could afford to
wait.'

At that moment a man strolled past them, a big stout fellow, showily
dressed in a check suit; and he gravely took off his hat to Dr Porhoët.
The doctor smiled and returned the salute.

'Who is your fat friend?' asked Arthur.