rt to control it. "It's kind of you to ask me
down here, but I wish you had invited Clarence alone. He knows how to
behave in company like this; I don't. I'm not in it. It was foolish of
me to come. It's like anybody trying to go Nap without a single picture
card in their hand. And I want to tell you something more--I'm engaged!
Engaged to a youngish man in my own station of life."

"No, no!" he cried.

"My dear," said old Mrs. Douglass, looking up concernedly, "surely you're
not in earnest!"

"I think," remarked Lady Douglass impartially, "that she is acting with
great wisdom."

"I was wishing to-day," the girl went on, raising her voice, "that I
hadn't got myself engaged. It happened because of a misunderstanding,
and I did it on the impulse of the moment; all the same, it can't be
helped. And I was pretty jolly before I met Henry, and--I don't know--I
may be pretty jolly again. If I go right out of his life now--why, I
shall only think, I shall only remember--"

Old Mrs. Douglass turned in her chair and patted the girl's hand.

"I shall only remember how happy I was all the time after I was lucky
enough to meet him. It's over and done with now, and I'm going back
home, where I can be trusted. I must be trusted. Here, you don't quite
believe me." She bent down to old Mrs. Douglass. "Not even you. I'm a
foreigner at this place; a foreigner, trying to learn your habits and
customs, and trying to forget my own. Perhaps, one day, you'll see that
although I wasn't very refined, and not too well brought up," she raised
her face, and her chin went out, "all the same, I did know how to keep
myself straight."

Young Mills came across the croquet lawn.

"Want you for a moment, Clarence," she said.

Henry Douglass, descending the staircase slowly and thoughtfully at eight
o'clock, asked Rutley whether Miss Higham was in the drawing-room.
Rutley answered that the young lady and Mr. Mills had gone. Walked to
Cholsey to catch the evening train to town. One of the under-gardeners
carried their luggage.

"Quite thought you knew, sir," mentioned Rutley.

CHAPTER VIII.

Frederick Bulpert, having obtained two professional engagements at
seven shillings and sixpence each, resigned his situation in the Post
Office, and this left him free to call at Praed Street whenever he
cared to do so. Mrs. Mills described him as a hearty eater, but she
made much of him, apparently out of gratitude. Gertie had