THE SIX OF SPADES. 133 



was complete. " And though I dare not speak my 

 mind to his lordship," she said, " I have had the 

 pleasure of telling his valet that we don't intend to 

 marry a snow man." 



Nevertheless, we heard to our great unhappiness 

 that the wedding-day was fixed. The announcement 

 was painful to most of us, but it seemed to have the 

 strongest and the strangest influence upon our sister 

 Phyllis. She would no longer speak of that which had 

 been her one topic of conversation. She had a nervous 

 manner and an anxious look. Sometimes she would 

 laugh almost hysterically ; and sometimes, my wife 

 told me, she would come to her in a paroxysm of 

 grief and tears, for which she would assign no cause. 



Then another strange incident happened to me. 

 The evening before our annual county flower-show I 

 had been occupied until it was almost dark, in tying 

 and packing a collection of stove and greenhouse 

 plants, which I was going to exhibit, when, in taking 

 a short cut from the kitchen-gardens across the park 

 to my home, and passing over the long walk, which is 

 a continuation, as you know, of the grand terrace, 

 and extends for nearly a mile through our woodland 

 grounds, I saw, ten yards from me, but in such 

 earnest conversation that they never heard my steps, 

 two figures, and, dim as the light was, I was quite 

 certain that I knew them. I almost ran the rest of 

 my way, and, in a fever of excitement, I whispered to 

 my wife, " Lady Alice has sent him the leaf." 



She received my information not only with disbelief 

 but derision, and next day she sent for her sister 

 Phyllis, to assist her in disbelieving. They said it 



