One day, as he was strolling down Oxford Street in his luncheon hour, a neat victoria drove past him, just as he was about to cross the road. A sudden instinct made him pause and look up, and with mixed feelings he recognized the two occupants--Celia and Lord Bexley. It was the first time he had encountered them together in this way, and a feeling of annoyance took possession of him as he watched them. Celia was chatting with evident enjoyment, her face lit up with animation. When she caught sight of her _fiancé_ she bowed, and favoured him with the shadow of a smile, but apparently did not deem it necessary to stop the carriage in order to speak to him. David strode on with resentment, whilst the first pangs of jealousy awakened in his breast. In a thoroughly bad temper he sauntered over to his customary restaurant, and, having given vent to his feelings by swearing at the waiter’s dilatoriness, took up a paper to beguile the time. It happened to be a popular journal descriptive of the doings of society, and the first thing he opened it at was an account of church parade in Hyde Park on the previous Sunday. He did not trouble to read the list of social celebrities who had been there, but two familiar names caught his eye-- “ ... Miss Celia Franks, accompanied by her favourite Yorkshire terrier, and looking delightfully fresh and cool in a gown of white _mousseline de soie_, sat under the trees on the ‘quiet side,’ talking to Lord Bexley....” “That reads all right,” he said to himself. “But I’ll take jolly good care that I’m there next Sunday. I wonder if they will put ‘talking to her intended husband, Mr. David Salmon’?” He turned over the pages. A description of Lady de Smythe’s ball next claimed his attention-- “ ... Lady Marjorie Stonor, gowned in ivory satin covered with old lace, and wearing a magnificent diamond pendant, brought Miss Celia Franks, the gifted singer, who afterwards joined in the cotillion, with Lord Bexley as her partner....” He flung down the paper with an impatient exclamation. Celia Franks and Lord Bexley--how he hated to see the two names coupled together. A sudden premonition of danger came over him. What if Lord Bexley should try to oust him from his place in Celia’s affections? Where would he be then? He was obliged to acknowledge that the peer was a more desirable _parti_, from a worldly point of view, than himself, and he did not credit Celia with being altogether above worldly considerations. After some amount of cogitation, he came to the conclusion that the sooner he and Celia were married the better, and he made up his mind to confer with her on the subject at the first opportunity.