My cousin Melville is never very clear about his dates. Now this is greatly to be regretted, because it would be very illuminating indeed if one could tell just how many days elapsed before he came upon Chatteris in intimate conversation with the Sea Lady. He was going along the front of the Leas with some books from the Public Library that Miss Glendower had suddenly wished to consult, and which she, with that entire ignorance of his lack of admiration for her which was part of her want of charm for him, had bidden him bring her. It was in one of those sheltered paths just under the brow which give such a pleasant and characteristic charm to Folkestone, that he came upon a little group about the Sea Lady's bath chair. Chatteris was seated in one of the wooden seats that are embedded in the bank, and was leaning forward and looking into the Sea Lady's face; and she was speaking with a smile that struck Melville even at the time as being a little special in its quality--and she seems to have been capable of many charming smiles. Parker was a little distance away, where a sort of bastion projects and gives a wide view of the pier and harbour and the coast of France, regarding it all with a qualified disfavour, and the bath chairman was crumpled up against the bank lost in that wistful melancholy that the constant perambulation of broken humanity necessarily engenders. [Illustration: A little group about the Sea Lady's bath chair.] My cousin slackened his pace a little and came up and joined them. The conversation hung at his approach. Chatteris sat back a little, but there seemed no resentment and he sought a topic for the three to discuss in the books Melville carried. "Books?" he said. "For Miss Glendower," said Melville. "Oh!" said Chatteris. "What are they about?" asked the Sea Lady. "Land tenure," said Melville. "That's hardly my subject," said the Sea Lady, and Chatteris joined in her smile as if he saw a jest. There was a little pause. "You are contesting Hythe?" said Melville. "Fate points that way," said Chatteris. "They threaten a dissolution for September." "It will come in a month," said Chatteris, with the inimitable tone of one who knows. "In that case we shall soon be busy." "And _I_ may canvass," said the Sea Lady. "I never have----" "Miss Waters," explained Chatteris, "has been telling me she means to help us." He met Melville's eye frankly. "It's rough work, Miss Waters," said Melville. "I don't mind that. It's fun. And I want to help. I really do want to help--Mr. Chatteris." "You know, that's encouraging." "I could go around with you in my bath chair?" "It would be a picnic," said Chatteris. "I mean to help anyhow," said the Sea Lady. "You know the case for the plaintiff?" asked Melville. She looked at him. "You've got your arguments?" "I shall ask them to vote for Mr. Chatteris, and afterwards when I see them I shall remember them and smile and wave my hand. What else is there?"