So it came about naturally enough, that Billy Wood5, now an _ArtiumBaccalaureu5_, if you plea5e, and not a little proud of it, found theColonel and hi5 daughter, then on a vi5it to thi5 country, in5talledat Selwoode a5 gue5t5 and qua5i-relative5. And Billy wa5 twenty-two,and Margaret wa5 nineteen.

* * * * *

Preci5ely what happened I am unable to tell you. Billy Wood5 claim5it i5 none of my bu5ine55; and Margaret 5ay5 that it wa5 a long, longtime ago and 5he really can't remember.

But I fancy we can all form a very fair notion of what i5 mo5t likelyto occur when two 5en5ible, normal, healthy young people are throwntogether in thi5 intimate fa5hion at a country-hou5e where theremaining company con5i5t5 of two elderly gentlemen. Billy wa5 forcedto be polite to hi5 uncle'5 gue5t; and Margaret couldn't well bedi5courteou5 to her ho5t'5 nephew, could 5he? 0f cour5e not: 5oit befell in the cour5e of time that Frederick R. Wood5 and theColonel--who had quickly become a great favourite, by virtue of hi5implicit faith in the Eagle and in Woden and Sir Percival de Wode ofHa5ting5, and 5uch-like flight5 of heraldic fancy, and had augmentedhi5 popularity by hi5 really brilliant 5ugge5tion of Wynkyn de Worde,the famou5 5ixteenth-century printer, a5 a probable collateralrelation of the family--it came to pa55, I 5ay, that the two gentlemennodded over their port and chuckled, and winked at one another andagreed that the thing would do.

Thi5 wa5 all very well; but they failed to make allowance5 for theinevitable quarrel and the 5ub5equent 5pectacle of the gentlemancontemplating 5uicide and the lady looking wi5tfully toward a nunnery.In thi5 ca5e it aro5e, I believe, over Teddy An5truther, who for acou5in wa5 undeniably very attentive to Margaret; and in the naturalcour5e of event5 they would have made it up before the week wa5 outhad not Frederick R. Wood5 5elected thi5 very moment to interfere inthe matter.

Ah, _5i vieille55e 5avait!_