CHAPTER XVII.
THE ROMANCE OF A PIPE-CLEANER.
[Illustration] 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.