Speeding along in the afternoon sunshine, looking out upon the country whirling by, pleasant and green in its rich dress of early summer, Raynier was conscious of a feeling of relief in that he was leaving behind him the heat and dust of London, likewise the racket and uproar of a city gone temporarily mad; albeit a more or less profuse display of bunting in every station the express slid through, notified that the delirium was already spreading throughout the length and breadth of the land. He had the compartment to himself, which was more favourable to the vein of thought upon which he had embarked. When he had arrived home five months previously he had no more notion of returning an engaged man than he had of building a balloon and starting upon a voyage of discovery to Saturn. Yet here he was, and how had it come about? He supposed he ought to feel enraptured--most men of his acquaintance were--or pretended to be--under the circumstances. Yet he was not. How on earth had he and Cynthia Daintree ever imagined that they were suited to go through life together, the fact being that there was no one point upon which they agreed? But now they were under such compact, hard and fast; yet--how had it come about? Her father, the Vicar of Worthingham, had been a sort of trustee of his, long ago, and on his arrival in England had invited him to spend as much of his furlough at that exceedingly pretty country village as he felt inclined. And he had felt inclined, for he knew but few people in England, and the quiet beauty of English rural scenery appealed to his temperament, wherefore, Worthingham Vicarage knew how to account for a good deal of his time, and so did the Vicar's eldest daughter. Here, then, was the answer to his own retrospective question--not put for the first time by any means. Propinquity, opportunity, circumstances and surroundings favourable to the growth and development of such--idiocy--he was nearly saying. All of which points to a fairly inauspicious frame of mind on the part of a man who in half an hour or so more would meet his _fiancee_. CHAPTER THREE. "ABOVE RUBIES." "What's the matter, Cynthia?" said the Vicar, looking up from his after-breakfast newspaper, spread out in crumpled irregularity of surface, upon the table in front of him. "Nothing, father, unless--well, I do wish people would learn to be a little more regular. The world would be so much more comfortable a place to live in." The Vicar had his doubts upon that subject. However, he only said,-- "Well, it's only once in a way, and won't hurt anybody. And you can't ask a man to stay with you, and then tie him down to rigid hours like a schoolboy." The time was nine o'clock on the second morning after Herbert Raynier's arrival. It need hardly be said that he was the offender against punctuality. Cynthia frowned, rattling the crockery upon the tea-tray somewhat viciously.