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consisted of Mr. Coppin, a kindly and garrulous gentleman of sixty; Mrs. Coppin, a somewhat negative personality, most of whose life was devoted to cooking and washing up in her underground lair; brothers Frank and Percy, gentlemen of leisure, popularly supposed to be engaged in the mysterious occupation known as "lookin' about for somethin'"; and, lastly, Muriel.

For some months after his arrival Muriel had been to Roland Bleke a mere automaton, a something outside himself that was made for neatly-laid breakfast-tables and silent removal of plates at dinner. Gradually, however, when his natural shyness was soothed by use sufficiently to enable him to look at her when she came into the room, he discovered that she was a strikingly pretty girl, bounded to the north by a mass of auburn hair and to the south by small and shapely feet. She also possessed what we are informed—we are children in these matters ourselves—is known as the R.S.V.P. eye. This eye had met Roland's one evening as he chumped his chop; and, before he knew what he was doing, he had remarked that it had been a fine day. From that moment matters had developed at an incredible speed. Roland had a nice sense of the social proprieties, and he could not bring himself to ignore a girl with whom he had once exchanged easy conversation about the weather. Whenever she came to lay his table he felt bound to say something. Not being an experienced gagger, he found it more and more difficult each evening to hit on something bright; until, finally, from sheer lack of inspiration, he kissed her.

If matters had progressed rapidly before, they went like lightning then. It was as if he had touched a spring or pressed a button, setting vast machinery in motion. Even as he reeled back, stunned at his audacity, the room became suddenly full of Coppins of every variety known to science. Through a mist he was aware of Mrs. Coppin crying in a corner, of Mr. Coppin drinking his health in the remains of his sparkling limado, of brothers Frank and Percy, one on each side, trying to borrow simultaneous half-crowns, and of Muriel, flushed but demure, making bread pellets and throwing them in an abstracted way, one by one, at the Coppin cat, which had wandered in on the chance of fish.

Out of the chaos, as he stood looking at them with his mouth open, came the word "banns," and smote him like a blast of east wind.

It is not necessary to trace in detail Roland's mental processes from that moment till the day he applied to Mr. Fineberg for a reduction of salary. It is enough to say that for quite a month he was extraordinarily happy. To a man who has had no experience of women, to be engaged is an intoxicating experience, and at first life was one long golden glow to Roland. Secretly, like all mild men, he had always nourished a desire to be esteemed a nut by his fellow-men; and his engagement satisfied that desire. It was