CHAPTER XVII.
THE ROMANCE OF A PIPE-CLEANER.
We continued to visit the Arcadia, though only one at a time now, and Gilray, who went most frequently, also remained longest. In other words, he was in love again, and this time she lived at Cookham. Marriot's love affairs I pushed from me with a wave of my pipe, but Gilray's second case was serious.
In time, however, he returned to the Arcadia Mixture, though not until the house-boat was in its winter-quarters. I witnessed his complete recovery, the scene being his chambers. Really it is rather a pathetic story, and so I give the telling of it to a rose, which the lady once presented to Gilray. Conceive the rose lying, as I saw it, on Gilray's hearth-rug, and then imagine it whispering as follows:
"A wire was round me that white night on the river when she let him take me from her. Then I hated the wire. Alas! hear the end.
"My moments are numbered; and if I would expose him with my dying sigh, I must not senti-
123
