"Leah Gibson, as she was then, sat near to me, with her mother and your sister. Leah Gibson looked like—well, you know what she looked like in those days. By‑the‑way, I can't make out how it is you weren't over head and ears in love with her yourself! I thought her the loveliest girl I had ever seen, and felt very unhappy.
"We slept at the hotel that night, and on the way back to Riffrath next morning Freddy Reece proposed to me.
"I told him I couldn't marry him—but that I loved him as a sister, and all that; I really was very fond of him indeed, but I didn't want to marry him; I wanted to marry Barty, in fact; and make him rich and famous, as I felt sure he would be some day, whether I married him or not.
"But there was that lovely Leah Gibson, the furrier's daughter!
"When we got home to Riffrath mamma found she'd got a cold, and had a fancy for a French thing called a 'loch'; I think her cold was suddenly brought on by my refusing poor Freddy's offer!
"I went with Grissel, the maid (who knew about lochs), to the Riffrath chemist's, but he didn't even know what we meant—so I told mamma I would go and get a loch in Düsseldorf next day if she liked, with Uncle James. Mamma was only too delighted, for next day was Mr. Josselin's day for coming to Riffrath; but he didn't, for I wrote to him to meet me at twelve at a little picture‑gallery I knew of in the Allee Strasse—as I wanted to have a talk with him.
"Uncle James had caught a cold too, so I went with Grissel; and found a chemist who'd been in France, and knew what a loch was and made one for me; and then I went to the gallery, and there was poor Barty sitting on a crimson velvet couch, under a picture of Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his daughters (I bought it afterwards, and I've got it now).
"We said how d'ye do, and sat on the couch together, and I felt dreadfully nervous and ashamed.
"Then I said:
"'You must think me very odd, Mr. Josselin, to ask you to meet me like this!'