"I don't see why he should be so particularly jolly." She pressed his
hand hard, laughing again. "He's only engaged," she whispered. "But
we're married, aren't we, Harry?"

"My dear, my dear, my dear!" said he.

XXX

TILL THE NEXT GENERATION

Major Duplay had taken a flat in town, and Mina had come up to aid him
in the task of furnishing it. The Major was busy and prosperous in these
days. Blinkhampton was turning up trumps for all concerned, for Iver,
for Harry, for Southend, and for him; the scheme even promised to be
remunerative to the investing public. So he had told Mina that he must
be on the spot, and that henceforward the country and the Continent
would know him only in occasional days of recreation. He also murmured
something about having met a very attractive woman, a widow of
thirty-five. The general result seemed to be that he had forgotten his
sorrows, was well content, and a good deal more independent of his
niece's society and countenance than he had been before. All this Mina
told to Lady Evenswood when she went to lunch in Green Street.

"Yes, I think I've launched uncle," said she complacently, "and now I
shall devote myself to the Tristrams."

"You've been doing that for a long time, my dear."

"Yes, I suppose I have really," she laughed. "I've been a sort of Miss
Swinkerton--I wish you knew her! Only I devoted myself to one family and
she does it for all the neighborhood."

Lady Evenswood looked at her with a kindly smile.

"You were rather in love with Harry, you know," she said.

"Which was very absurd, but--yes, I was. Only then Cecily came
and--well, it was altogether too artistic for me even to want to
interfere. If I had wanted, it would have made no difference, of course.
They've been pressing me to go on living at Merrion, and I shall."

"Oh, if you could get nothing but a pigsty on the estate, you'd take it.
Though I don't know what you'll find to do."

"To do? Oh, plenty! Why, they're only just beginning, and----!" The wave
of her hands expressed the endless possibilities of a Tristram
household.

"And gradually you'll glide into being an old woman like me--looking at
the new generation!"

"Her children and his! There ought to be something to look at," said
Mina wistfully. "But we've not done with Harry himself yet."

"Robert says he's too fond of making money, or he might do something in
politics."

"It isn't money exactly. It's a good deal Blent. He wants to m