But he did not even blush because he had forgotten.

[Illustration:  CHAPTER EIGHT]

WHEN A MAN GOES SHOPPING

[Illustration:  W]

Many of Hugh Egerton’s best moments during the last six years had been spent in dreams.  In those dreams the past had lived again; for he had seen the future as once he had hoped it might be for him.

But all through this night of Christmas Eve he lay awake; and no dreams had ever been as half as sweet as the thoughts that came to him then.  It would have been a hideous waste of time to sleep, when he could lie there and live over again each moment of his evening, beginning at the beginning, when She had come into the room, and going on to the end when he had brought her and Rosemary to the door of the Hotel Pension Beau Soleil, to say “goodbye until to-morrow.”  When he came to the end, he went back to the beginning again with renewed zest, trying to call up some word, some look of hers which he might have neglected to count among his treasured jewels.

Then, when he was sure that he had each pearl and ruby and diamond duly polished and strung on the fine gold chain of loving memory, he would let his mind run ahead of time, to the next day.

What a Christmas it was going to be!  There never had been one like it before, in the history of the world; but—­the best of it was—­there was reason to hope that there would be many others to come just as exquisite, if not more perfect.

Evelyn Clifford had loved him, even when she had let him go.  She loved him now; and she had promised to make up for the long grey years of the past by marrying him almost at once.

There was nothing to wait for.  He was lonely and rich.  She was lonely and poor.  Both were young, and starving for happiness.  In a week they would be married, for she had promised to begin the New Year as his wife.  Meanwhile, there would be a great deal to do (so she said, though he could not see why) in getting ready.  But Christmas was to be a holiday.  They were going on that picnic to Eze, all three.  That was already planned; but Hugh had mentally made an addition to the plan, of which he had said not a word.

He was as excited over the thought of this plan as Rosemary would have been had she known.  And lest there should be a hitch, or he should not have time to accomplish all, he was out of bed by half past six—­that mysterious hour of dawn when across the glimmering sea Corsica can be seen, floating like a heaped basket of violets in waves of transparent gold.

Last night he had anxiously enquired of the concierge whether the Monte Carlo shops would be open on Christmas morning, and had been informed that they would.  Otherwise, Hugh Egerton would have been capable of battering down the doors, helping himself to the things he wanted, and leaving enough money to pay for damages as well as purchases.