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evening, at least, the peculiarity of a brother calling his sister "Miss
Beaumont" did not recur to him. He was much too preoccupied with an
analysis of his own share of these encounters. He found it hard to be
altogether satisfied about the figure he had cut, revise his memories as
he would.
Once more quite unintentionally he stumbled upon these two people. It
was about seven o'clock. He stopped outside a linen draper's and peered
over the goods in the window at the assistants in torment. He could have
spent a whole day happily at that. He told himself that he was trying
to see how they dressed out the brass lines over their counters, in a
purely professional spirit, but down at the very bottom of his heart he
knew better. The customers were a secondary consideration, and it was
only after the lapse of perhaps a minute that he perceived that among
them was--the Young Lady in Grey! He turned away from the window
at once, and saw the other man in brown standing at the edge of the
pavement and regarding him with a very curious expression of face.
There came into Mr. Hoopdriver's head the curious problem whether he was
to be regarded as a nuisance haunting these people, or whether they were
to be regarded as a nuisance haunting him. He abandoned the solution at
last in despair, quite unable to decide upon the course he should take
at the next encounter, whether he should scowl savagely at the couple or
assume an attitude eloquent of apology and propitiation.
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