g, who seemed
greatly pleased to meet an old friend. 'I'll turn and walk with you.
I've nothing particular to do.'

'Will you come and lunch with me?' said Mr. Tom (he had recovered
himself after the inadvertent blush). 'We can walk along to the club.'

'Yes, I will; said Frank King, heartily. 'Which is your club?'

'The Waterloo. They call it that because it isn't in Waterloo Place.
It's in Regent Street.'

'All right,' said the other; but instantly he began to pursue his
inquiries. 'Yes, I heard of you and your family from the Strathernes.
There have been great changes since I left England. Your eldest sister
is married, is she not?'

'You mean Moll: yes. They live in town--a small house back there in
Mayfair. He used to be a richer man,' observed Mr. Tom,
contemplatively, 'before he took silk.'

'But they are going to make him a judge, I hear.'

'Faith, then, I hope he'll never have to try me,' said Mr. Tom, with an
air of conviction. 'He and I never could hit it off. I hate pompous
people, and people who give themselves airs. Now, I took a liking to
you the first five minutes I saw you.'

Captain King was dutifully grateful for this condescension. He said he
also hated pompous people--he couldn't bear them. And then he asked
about Tom's sister Edith.

'She's engaged to be married, isn't she?'

'It's my belief,' said Mr. Tom, with a smile, 'that she has engaged
herself to both of them, just to make sure; and that she can't make up
her mind which to send off. I don't wonder at her pulling a wry mouth
about having to marry a soda-water manufacturer; but Soda-water isn't
half a bad sort of fellow, and he is fearfully rich. You see he is
particularly beaming just now, for there have been two or three blazing
hot summers running, and the demand must have been tremendous. Then
young Thynne, he's no end of a swell, no doubt; but you may be cousin
to all kinds of earls and dukes without their giving you anything. I
should fancy his father lets him have two or three hundred a year. I
should like to see the Sentimental get along with that! You can't live
on a fellow's ancestry. I think she should take Soda-water, even if he
hasn't got anything like a father to speak of. And even if he hasn't
got a father--this was what Nan said--he might be equally "_sans pere
et sans reproche_."'

'It was your sister Anne said that, was it?' remarked Frank King,
quickly.

'That was in her saucy days,' said