d, "and meanwhile old Betsy is living rent free, with
soup twice a week and my aunt's doctor to see her whenever she has a
finger ache."

"But how on earth did you get to know about it all?" asked her friend, in
admiring wonder.

"It was a mystery--" said Vera.

"Of course it was a mystery, a mystery that baffled everybody. What
beats me is how you found out--"

"Oh, about the jewels? I invented that part," explained Vera; "I mean
the mystery was where old Betsy's arrears of rent were to come from; and
she would have hated leaving that jolly quince tree."

THE FORBIDDEN BUZZARDS

"Is matchmaking at all in your line?"

Hugo Peterby asked the question with a certain amount of personal
interest.

"I don't specialise in it," said Clovis; "it's all right while you're
doing it, but the after-effects are sometimes so disconcerting--the mute
reproachful looks of the people you've aided and abetted in matrimonial
experiments. It's as bad as selling a man a horse with half a dozen
latent vices and watching him discover them piecemeal in the course of
the hunting season. I suppose you're thinking of the Coulterneb girl.
She's certainly jolly, and quite all right as far as looks go, and I
believe a certain amount of money adheres to her. What I don't see is
how you will ever manage to propose to her. In all the time I've known
her I don't remember her to have stopped talking for three consecutive
minutes. You'll have to race her six times round the grass paddock for a
bet, and then blurt your proposal out before she's got her wind back. The
paddock is laid up for hay, but if you're really in love with her you
won't let a consideration of that sort stop you, especially as it's not
your hay."

"I think I could manage the proposing part right enough," said Hugo, "if
I could count on being left alone with her for four or five hours. The
trouble is that I'm not likely to get anything like that amount of grace.
That fellow Lanner is showing signs of interesting himself in the same
quarter. He's quite heartbreakingly rich and is rather a swell in his
way; in fact, our hostess is obviously a bit flattered at having him
here. If she gets wind of the fact that he's inclined to be attracted by
Betty Coulterneb she'll think it a splendid match and throw them into
each other's arms all day long, and then where will my opportunities come
in? My one anxiety is to keep him out of the girl's way as much as
possible,