MISS P. I will make no promises--a true knight should expect no reward for his service, Mr. Podbury. PODB. (_blankly_). Shouldn't he? I'm a little new to the business, you see, and it _does_ strike me----but never mind. When am I to trot him off? [Illustration: "IT DOES SEEM RATHER ROUGH ON FELLOWS, DON'T YOU KNOW."] MISS P. As soon as you can induce him to go--to-morrow, if possible. PODB. I don't believe he'll _go_, you know, for one thing! MISS P. (_demurely_). I think you will find him open to persuasion. But go and try, Mr. Podbury. PODB. (_to himself, as he withdraws_). Well, I've let myself in for a nice thing! Rummest way of treating a proposal _I_ ever heard of. I should just like to tell that fellow Ruskin what I think of his precious ideas. But there's _one_ thing, though--she can't care about Culchard, or she wouldn't want him carted off like this.... Hooray, I never thought of that before! Why, there he is, dodging about to find out how _I've_ got on. I'll tackle him straight off. [CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY _meet at the head of the staircase, and speak at the same moment._ CULCH. Er--Podbury, it has occurred } to me that we might----} } leave this place to-morrow! PODB. I say, Culchard, we really ought} to----} PODB. Hullo! we're both of one mind for once, eh? (_To himself._) Poor old beggar! Got the sack! That explains a lot. Well, I won't tell him anything about this business just now. CULCH. So it appears. (_To himself._) Had his _quietus_, evidently. Ah, well, I won't exult over him. [_They go off together to consult a time-table._ MISS P. (_on the balcony musing_). Poor fellows! I couldn't very well say anything more definite at present. By the time I see them again, I may understand my own heart better. Really, it is rather an exciting sensation, having two suitors under vow and doing penance at the same time--and all for my sake! I hope, though, they won't mention it to one another--or to Bob. Bob does not understand these things, and he might----But after all, there are only _two_ of them. And Ruskin distinctly says that every girl who is worth _anything_ ought always to have half a dozen or so. Two is really _quite_ moderate. CHAPTER XII. Culchard descends from the Clouds. SCENE--_in Front of the Hotel Bodenhaus at Spluegen. The Diligence For Bellinzona is having its team attached. An elderly Englishwoman is sitting on her trunk, trying to run through the last hundred pages of a novel from the Hotel Library before her departure._ PODBURY _is in the Hotel, negotiating for sandwiches._ CULCHARD _is practising his Italian upon a very dingy gentleman in smoked spectacles, with a shawl round his throat._