show of sarcasm that did not hurt
anybody very much.

The evening brought her a letter. Thus it ran:--

'Dear Madge--I thought you looked angry when you went indoors this
morning. Don't quarrel about such a trifle as my going to London. I
shall be back in two or three days; and hope to bring with me the big
photograph of Kingscourt, if they have got any copies printed yet.

'Your FRANK.'

'From whom is your letter, Madge?' Lady Beresford said, incidentally.

'From Frank, mamma,' said the young lady, as she quietly and
determinedly walked across the room and--thrust it into the fire!

That same night Miss Madge also wrote a note; but the odd thing was
that the writing of both note and address was in a disguised hand. And
when, some little time thereafter, the others were in the
billiard-room, it was Madge herself who slipped out from the house and
went and dropped that missive into the nearest pillar letter-box.

CHAPTER XXII.

A CATASTROPHE.

However, Madge's ill-temper was never of long duration; and at this
particular time, instead of sinking farther into sulks over the absence
of her lover, she grew day by day more joyous and generous and
affectionate. The change was most marked; and Nan, who was her
sister's chief confidant, could not make it out at all. Her gaiety
became almost hysterical; and her kindness to everybody in the house
ran to extravagance. She bought trinkets for the servants. She
presented Mr. Tom with a boot-jack mounted in silver; and he was
pleased to say that it was the first sensible present he had ever known
a girl make. But it was towards Nan that she was most particularly
affectionate and caressing.

'You know I'm not clever, Nan,' she said, in a burst of confidence,
'and I haven't got clockworks in my brain, and I daresay I'm not
interesting--_to everybody_. But I know girls who are stupider than I
am who are made plenty of. And of course, if you don't have any
romance when you're young, when are you likely to get it after?'

'But I don't know what you mean, Madge!' Nan exclaimed.

Nor did Madge explain at the moment. She continued--

'I believe it was you, Nan, who told me of the young lady who remarked,
"What's the use of temptation if you don't yield to it?"'

'That was only a joke,' said Nan, with her demure smile.

'Oh, I think there's sense in it,' said the practical Madge. 'It
doesn't do to be too wise when you're young.'

'It so seldom happens