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122 WHAT CANNOT LOVE DO. might have been attached to the train from Crewe to London, but this effort, like all else, ended in failure; and Larry, as he ■entered the metropolis, could only compliment himself on the precision and completeness with which he had proved his utter and ridiculous failure. The hotel attached to the station revived his hope. They would have arrived, as he did, late—about ten—and, very likely, might have done what he intended to do —stay there. But alas! neither waiters nor chambermaids, however greedily they listened to Larry's unspoken, but once more very silvery eloquence, were able in the least to assist him. He was truly miserable! So much so that in his many wakeful hours of the night he almost resolved to go back to Ireland, and undo all he had been doing, including a very absolute forgetfulness of the sleeping maiden of the wood. But the morning brought back healthier views. Again he recalled Mr. Blake's biting, corroding sentences; and again he felt courage, purpose, and will—and soon determined on a new mental departure. He had learned from one of the tradesmen at Bray, who had been accustomed to gossip occasionally with the elder lady, that she had, some days before Larry's memorable meeting with her party, been asking questions about Hastings at one end of the -country, and Torquay at the other; as though the family had been then thinking of a change of locality, and were hesitating between the two; though nothing had passed that distinctly pointed to such a conclusion. Yet, if that were so, the sudden change might not, after all, have been so sudden as it had appeared to Larry; or, at least, might have found them prepared. Of course, he would visit those places, and to make sure would stay a week in each, if necessary ; and if failure, like a •destiny, still dogged his steps, acknowledge himself beaten, and try no farther till something like actual enlightenment promised successful guidance. And then ? Well, then he would resolutely turn to his own posi¬ tion and affairs; consider what was best; do it; and so break through this all-absorbing preoccupation of his thoughts and feelings which would speedily leave him fit for nothing in the world else. Hastings first, and then Torquay, were visited. He saw many ladies at each place that in other and past days would liave given him a rapid succession of loves at first sight; and .set him to institute a philosophical inquiry if there was any connection between so many charming women and the places they were in, both among the lovliest of our watering places. But his ever hungry eyes paused on each fair one only just long enough to know it was not his fair one. His ever restless