apt, into the bargain, at the time of quite other
calls upon it, to throw itself suddenly back and,
supported behind by his uplifted arms and inter
locked hands, place him for unconscionable periods
in communion with the ceiling, the tree-tops, the
sky. He was in short visibly absent-minded, irregu- -
larly clever, liable to drop what was near and to
take up what was far; he was more a respecter, in
general, than a follower of custom. He suggested
above all, however, that wondrous state of youth
in which the elements, the metals more or less
precious, are so in fusion and fermentation that
the question of the final stamp, the pressure that
fixes the value, must wait for comparative coolness.
And it was a mark of his interesting mixture that
if he was irritable it was by a law of considerable
subtlety a law that, in intercourse with him, it
might be of profit, though not easy, to master.
One of the effects of it was that he had for you
surprises of tolerance as well as of temper.

He loitered, on the best of the relenting days,
the several occasions we speak of, along the part
of the Gardens nearest to Lancaster Gate, and
when, always, in due time, Kate Croy came out of
her aunt's house, crossed the road and arrived by
the nearest entrance, there was a general publicity
in the proceeding which made it slightly anomalous.
If their meeting was to be bold and free it might
have taken place within doors; if it was to be shy
or secret it might have taken place almost any-

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