But the musician was standing fixed, as if in great perplexity.
Thrusting his hand into his forest of black hair, he murmured,
'Surely it is the same--surely!'

Jim, following the direction of his neighbour's eyes, found them to
be fixed on a figure till that moment hidden from himself--Margery
Tucker--who was crossing the garden to an opposite gate with a little
cheese in her arms, her head thrown back, and her face quite exposed.

'What of her?' said Jim.

'Two months ago I formed one of the band at the Yeomanry Ball given
by Lord Toneborough in the next county. I saw that young lady
dancing the polka there in robes of gauze and lace. Now I see her
carry a cheese!'

'Never!' said Jim incredulously.

'But I do not mistake. I say it is so!'

Jim ridiculed the idea; the bandsman protested, and was about to lose
his temper, when Jim gave in with the good-nature of a person who can
afford to despise opinions; and the musician went his way.

As he dwindled out of sight Jim began to think more carefully over
what he had said. The young man's thoughts grew quite to an
excitement, for there came into his mind the Baron's extraordinary
kindness in regard to furniture, hitherto accounted for by the
assumption that the nobleman had taken a fancy to him. Could it be,
among all the amazing things of life, that the Baron was at the