that."

An inarticulate grunt from Colonel Ormonde, as he fixed his double glass
on his nose and took up his pen again.

"Duke," resumed Mrs. Ormonde, after a pause, "don't you think I had
better go and see Katherine? You know we never had any quarrel, and that
Mrs. Needham she lives with gives very nice parties."

"Parties! By Jove! you'd go to old Nick for a party. What good will it
do you to meet a pack of beggarly scribblers?"

"They may not have money, Duke, but they have _manners_, and something
to say for themselves," she retorted. "Never mind about the parties.
Don't you think I would better call on Katherine?"

"Do as you like but consider that she has behaved very badly--with
extreme insolence; but I don't want to influence you." This in a tone of
magnanimity, as he began to write with an air of profound attention.

Mrs. Ormonde made a swift contemptuous grimace at his back, and said, in
mellifluous tones: "Very well, dear. I may as well go at once, and
perhaps she will come with me to that dressmaking ally of hers, Miss
Trant. I hear she is raising her prices, but she will not do so to me if
I am with her original patroness."

"Oh, do as you like; only don't send me in a long milliner's bill."

"I am sure, Duke, my clothes never cost you much."

"Not so far, but the future looks rather blue."

To this she made no reply. Leaving the room noiselessly, she retired to
give a touch of kohl to her eyes, a dust of pearl powder to her cheeks,
and then started on her mission of inquiry and reconciliation.

It is not to be denied that Katherine was greatly touched by De Burgh's
thoughtful kindness to her boys. She had been a good deal troubled about
their holidays, for she did not like to take full advantage of Mrs.
Needham's kind permission to absent herself as much as she liked in
order to be with them, and she well knew that in Miss Payne's very
orderly establishment the two restless, active little fellows would be
a most discordant ingredient. Above all, she wanted them to have a very
happy holiday, as she feared their cloudless sunny days were numbered.

The second morning, therefore, after she had deposited them in Wilton
Street, when she went to inquire for them, and found that Lord de Burgh
had called and carried them off to have luncheon with him first, and to
spend the afternoon at the Zoological Gardens after, she could hardly
credit her ears.

"I must say," observed Miss Payne, "that I am a