tial conversation with me after
dinner, and we must be alone."

"Have you any idea what it will be about?"

"No; and I am astonished at your putting the question. You may come in
after church to-morrow if you like."

"Thank you. I shall be rather late, as I am going to an open-air service
beyond Whitechapel."

"Well, I do hope you'll get something to eat after. Are _you_ going to
preach?"

"No. I seldom preach. I haven't the gift of eloquence."

"Which means you have a little common-sense left. Really, Gilbert, for a
man of thirty-five, or nearly thirty-five, you are too credulous."

"It is my nature to be so," he returned, laughing. "Well, good-by to
you. It is really unkind to turn me out in this unceremonious fashion."
So saying, with his usual sweet-tempered compliance he departed.

"What a good boy he is!" said Miss Payne to herself, looking at the
grate, while by a dual brain action she made a brief calculation as to
how much longer she must burn coal. "He ought to have been a girl. Why
don't rich young women see that he is the very stuff to make a pleasant
husband, instead of those monsters of strength and determination that
fools of women make gods of, and themselves door mats for, and often
find to be only big pumpkins after all?"

Miss Payne's anticipations were of the gloomiest when, after their
quickly despatched dinner, she settled herself between the fire and
window with her favorite tatting, drawing up the knots with vicious
energy. She opened proceedings by an interrogative "Well?" and closed
her mouth with a snap.

"Well, my dear Miss Payne," began Katherine, who had settled herself
comfortably in a corner of the sofa, "I have an important plan in my
mind, and I want your co-operation. I should have written to you about
it, only I waited to get Colonel Ormonde's consent."

"It's a man!" ejaculated Miss Payne to herself.

"To begin: I was not at all satisfied with the boys when I first went to
Castleford. They were not exactly neglected, but they were quite
secluded. Mrs. Ormonde scarcely saw them, and their governess or
attendant was not at all lady-like; she speaks with a London accent and
misplaces her _h'_s; altogether she is not the sort of person I should
have placed with the boys. Then the poor little fellows clung to me and
monopolized me as if I had been their mother; they made me feel like
one. Moreover, I seemed to see my own dear mother and hear her voice
when they spoke to me.