What bold beings are these lovers! Nothing daunts them. They will take the world by storm and set Fortune herself at defiance. A very Paladin seemed Archie in the eyes of the girl who loved him. How beautifully he spoke—what noble sentiments fell from his lips!
‘I am not afraid to face poverty or anything else,’ she murmured, ‘so long as I know that you care for me.’ Tears trembled in her eyes.
‘And that I shall never, never cease to do!’ he responded fervently.
He had sidled a little closer to her on the rustic bench, and he now tried, after a fashion old as the hills, to insinuate one arm gently round her waist.
‘No—no, Archie, dear, you must not do that! We are not alone. Although that young curate pretends to be reading, he’s watching us all the time.’
‘Confound his impudence!’ growled Archie with a glance over his shoulder at the obnoxious individual. Then he drew exactly an inch and a half further away, and proceeded to light a fresh cigarette.
The fact was that, after the immemorial fashion of lovers, our two young lunatics had been so absorbed in themselves and their own affairs that they had had no eyes to note the fresh arrivals which the last steamer had brought to the hotel. One of these was a young man dressed in the garb of a modern curate. The afternoon was hot, and as he came slowly up the path that led from the level of the lake to the elevated ground on which the hotel was built, he fanned himself with the broad brim of his low-crowned felt hat. Behind him marched a porter carrying a bulky portmanteau, a mackintosh, and an exceedingly slim umbrella.
A little way from the path stood an immense elm, round the bole of which a seat had been fixed for the convenience of visitors. It looked cool and tempting; the young man glanced at it and hesitated.
‘Why go indoors just yet?’ he asked himself. Then turning to the porter, he said: ‘Take those traps into the hotel and secure a bedroom for me. Then find out whether you have a Lady Renshaw and a Miss Wynter staying in the hotel, and come back at once and let me know.’
‘Yes, sir—Lady Renshaw and Miss Wynter.—What name shall I have put down for the bedroom—your name, sir?’