e always does in those
places."

"Just so. That is what 'those places' are meant for, I suppose. But
it was not apparently a great infliction." Lord Silverbridge had
to explain that it was not an infliction;--that it was a privilege,
seeing that Miss Boncassen was both clever and lovely; but that it
did not mean anything in particular.

When he took his leave he asked his sister to go out into the grounds
with him for a moment. This she did almost unwillingly, fearing that
he was about to speak to her of Tregear. But he had no such purpose
on his mind. "Of course you know," he began, "all that was nonsense
you were saying about Mabel."

"I did not know."

"I was afraid you might blurt out something before her."

"I should not be so imprudent."

"Girls do make such fools of themselves sometimes. They are always
thinking about people being in love. But it is the truth that my
father said to me the other day how very much he liked what he had
heard of her, and that he would like you to know her."

On that same evening Silverbridge wrote from the Beargarden the
shortest possible note to Lady Mabel, telling her what he had
arranged. "I and Mary propose to call in B. Square on Friday at two.
I must be early because of the House. You will give us lunch. S."
There was no word of endearment,--none even of those ordinary words
which people who hate each other use to one another. But he received
the next day at home a much more kindly-written note from her:

DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE,

You are so good! You always do just what you think people
will like best. Nothing could please me so much as seeing
your sister, of whom of course I have heard very very
much. There shall be nobody here but Miss Cass.

Yours most sincerely,

M. G.

"How I do wish I were a man!" his sister said to him when they were
in the hansom together.

"You'd have a great deal more trouble."

"But I'd have a hansom of my own, and go where I pleased. How would
you like to be shut up at a place like The Horns?"

"You can go out if you like it."

"Not like you. Papa thinks it's the proper place for me to live in,
and so I must live there. I don't think a woman ever chooses how or
where she shall live herself."

"You are not going to take up woman's rights, I hope."

"I think I shall if I stay at The Horns much longer. What would papa
say if he heard that I was going to give a lecture at an Institute?"

"The governor