She was waiting on a seat by a certain piece of water in Regent's Park. She must have had eyes behind, because, although she was sitting with her back to him, directly he stepped upon the grass she sprang up, and, as if she had been observing him all the time, went to him at something very like a run. He advanced at quick step. They met in the middle of the grass plot, contrary to regulations, which forbid people to walk upon the grass. They each gave two hands, and that with an air which suggested that if that had not been a public place they would have given each other something else as well.
'Guy!' she exclaimed. 'I thought you were the other side of the world. What a time you've been!'
'Coming from the other side of the world? or from Craven Street? It is some distance from Craven Street to Regent's Park.'
'You are in Craven Street, are you? What's it mean? You're looking well--sort of coppery colour; it suits you.'
'That's the air of the veldt; it burnishes a man's skin. You're looking sweet. I say, it's awfully hard lines that I can't kiss you. Mayn't I--just a little one?'
'In broad daylight, in Regent's Park, with a hundred pairs of eyes observing us from Hamilton Terrace? Thank you; some other day. When I had your note--what a note! "Meet me at the old place at noon"--I wondered who I was to meet, you or your ghost. As a matter of fact, I had a most important engagement--just at noon; but I put it off on purpose to come and see.'
'That was very dear of you. I'm not my ghost, I'm me.'
'But--Guy, have you made your fortune? You didn't seem as if you were going to make it at quite such a rate when you wrote last.'
He shook his head.
'Came back with less in my pockets than when I left.'