"and let you keep the
whole."

"Oh, John!" said Margaret.

"You have no right to scold him yet," said Mrs Mackenzie.

Margaret, when she heard this, blushed up to her forehead, and in her
confusion forgot all about the paper-knife and the money. Sir John, I
fancy, was almost as much confused himself, and was quite unable to
make any fitting reply. But, just at that moment, there came across
two harpies from the realms of Mrs Chaucer Munro, eagerly intent upon
their prey.

"Here are the lion and the lamb together," said one harpy. "The lion
must buy a rose to give to the lamb. Sir Lion, the rose is but a
poor half-crown." And she tendered him a battered flower, leering
at him from beneath her draggled, dusty bonnet as she put forth her
untempting hand for the money.

"Sir Lion, Sir Lion," said the other harpy, "I want your name for a
raffle."

But the lion was off, having pushed the first harpy aside somewhat
rudely. That tale of the Lion and the Lamb had been very terrible to
him; but never till this occasion had any one dared to speak of it
directly to his face. But what will not a harpy do who has become
wild and dirty and disgusting in the pursuit of half-crowns?

"Now he is angry," said Margaret. "Oh, Mrs Mackenzie, why did you say
that?"

"Yes; he is angry," said Mrs Mackenzie, "but not with you or me. Upon
my word, I thought he would have pushed that girl over; and if he
had, he would only have served her right."

"But why did you say that? You shouldn't have said it."

"About your not scolding him yet? I said it, my dear, because I
wanted to make myself certain. I was almost certain before, but now I
am quite certain."

"Certain of what, Mrs Mackenzie?"

"That you'll be a baronet's wife before me, and entitled to be taken
out of a room first as long as dear old Sir Walter is alive."

Soon after that the bazaar was brought to an end, and it was supposed
to have been the most successful thing of the kind ever done in
London. Loud boasts were made that more than eight hundred pounds had
been cleared; but whether any orphans of any negro soldiers were ever
the better for the money I am not able to say.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Showing How the Lion Was Stung by the Wasp

It may be remembered that Mr Maguire, when he first made public that
pretty story of the Lion and the Lamb, declared that he would give
the lion no peace till that beast had disgorged his prey, and that
he had pledged himself t