e greatest care of it, madam,' the man replied.

'Do, then,' said the little old dame, 'and I may gi'e ye a penny, though I
dinna mak' ony promises, mind.'

A nicer little dinner was never served, nor could a snugger room for such
a _tete-a-tete_ meal be easily imagined. It was on the ground floor, the
great casement windows opening on to a verandah in a shady garden, where
grass was kept green and smooth as velvet, where rare ferns grew in
luxurious freedom with dwarf palms and drooping bananas, and where
stephanotis and the charming lilac bougainvillea were still in bloom.

When the dessert was finished, and old Jenny was quite tired talking, it
seemed so natural that she should curl up in an easy-chair and go off to
sleep.

'I hope my umbrella's safe, laddie,' were her last words as her son
wrapped her in his plaid.

'As safe as the Union Bank,' he replied.

So we left her there, for the waiter had taken coffee into the verandah.

Aunt, somewhat to our astonishment, ordered cigars, and explained to
Moncrieff that she did not object to smoking, but _did_ like to see men
happy.

Moncrieff smiled.

'You're a marvel as well as my mither,' he said.

He smoked on in silence for fully five minutes, but he often took the
cigar from his mouth and looked at it thoughtfully; then he would allow
his eyes to follow the curling smoke, watching it with a smile on his face
as it faded into invisibility, as they say ghosts do.

'Mr. Moncrieff,' said aunt, archly, 'I know what you are thinking about.'

Moncrieff waved his hand through a wreath of smoke as if to clear his
sight.

'If you were a man,' he answered, 'I'd offer to bet you couldn't guess my
thoughts. I was not thinking about my Dulcinea, nor even about my mither;
I was thinking about you and your britheries--I mean your nephews.'

'You are very kind, Mr. Moncrieff.'

'I'm a man of the wo_rrr_ld, though I wasn't aye a man of the wo_rrr_ld. I
had to pay deep and dear for my experience, Miss M'Crimman.'

'I can easily believe that; but you have benefited by it.'

'Doubtless, doubtless; only it was concerning yourselves I was about to
make an observation or two.'

'Oh, thanks, do. You are so kind.'

'Never a bit. This is a weary wo_rrr_ld at best. Where would any of us
land if the one didn't help the other? Well then, there you sit, and woman
of the wo_rrr_ld though you be, you're in a strange corner of it. You're
in a foreign land now if ever you were. Y