d said what was true. `Dear Mrs Webb,--Thank you so
much for the dear little pepperettes. It is so kind of you to think of
me, and as I have already had seven pairs sent, I feel no anxiety
whatever concerning my future happiness.' `Dear Mr Cross,--Thank you
so much for the vases which you have so kindly sent me. They are quite
unique, I am sure, as I have never before seen anything like them. I
shall put them in my drawing-room whenever I know you are coming, and
keep them carefully in a cupboard when you are away.' `Dear Mrs de
Bels,--How kind of you to send me such a sweet little egg-boiler! We
never use such a thing, but it will do charmingly to give away to some
one else, and--'"

"It's to be hoped no one will send you wedding presents, Kitty, if
that's the way you are going to receive them!" said Nan severely; but
her reproof was received with bursts of derisive laughter.

"Ho! ho! ho! How innocent we are! how proper all of a sudden! Can you
look us in the face and say you have not said as nearly that as you
dared--that you have not deliberately disguised your true sentiments?"

"I can! I do! I have not written a single word this morning with which
you could find fault!" cried Nan, with a boldness which betrayed her to
her sharp-witted adversaries, for the cry was immediately raised--

"She hasn't written at all! She has been sitting dreaming about _him_
instead."

"I think of thee by morn, my love!" chanted Kitty, rolling her eyes to
the ceiling with a ridiculous affectation of sentiment; while Agatha and
Christabel went through a pantomime of rapturous greeting, at which Nan
laughed in unperturbed enjoyment. She had served a long apprenticeship
to her sisters' teasing ways, and was too happy in her engagement to
keep up any pretence of indifference. Nan, indeed, won universal
admiration in the character of an engaged girl, for there was something
inexpressibly winsome in her transparent enjoyment of her own happiness.
She loved her future husband with all her heart, and saw no reason why
she should feign an indifference which she was so far from feeling.

When Gervase arrived in person shortly after lunch, she went flying to
meet him, and came back hanging on his arm, her face sparkling with
happiness and contentment.

"He has come! He has come! Here he is!" she cried, in tones of
triumph; and Gervase was promptly surrounded by his sisters-in-law-to-
be, and escorted round the house to see