riner; "could you manage
to come now? We can do it in little over a couple of hours."

Gertie took Miss Loriner into the adjoining room.

"If she's really ill," said the girl, "don't tell him anything about
the key. He can hear it all, later on. And nobody at Praed Street
knows anything about the affair."

Bulpert declined to escort Miss Rabbit to her omnibus, and, in spite of
hints from Mrs. Mills, remained when all the other guests had departed.
He took opportunity to criticize the management of the evening, and to
deplore the fact that his services had not been utilized. Making an
estimate of the total cost, he again referred to his suggestion in
regard to a series of similar entertainments later on.

"If you find you can afford it," agreed Gertie.

"If I can afford it!" he echoed surprisedly. "There's no question of
me affording it. Why don't you talk sense? You'll be earning the same
good salary after we're spliced as you're earning at the present
moment."

"No!" she answered definitely. "When I'm married I give up work at
Great Titchfield Street."

"Why, of course," agreed Mrs. Mills. "She'll have her home duties to
attend to."

Bulpert stared at the two separately. Then he rose, pulled at his
waistcoat, and went without speaking a word.

"He's took the precaution," remarked Sarah, coming in to clear, as a
bang sounded below, "to shut the door after him."

Mrs. Mills, reviewing the party, and expressing the hope that all had
enjoyed themselves, mentioned that Miss Rabbit in the course of the
evening made a statement to her which had, apparently, been weighing on
the lady's mind. Miss Rabbit reproached herself for giving wrong
information in regard to the stability of the firm of Hilbert, and
begged Mrs. Mills would explain. In her own phrase she tried to out
Gertie, and as this had not come off, her suggestion was that bygones
should be considered as bygones, and nothing more said about the matter.

"It isn't such a bad world," decided Mrs. Mills, "if you only come to
look at it in a good light."

CHAPTER X.

Gertie's sympathy with the invalid of Morden Place found itself
slightly diminished on Monday morning. The front room had not yet been
restored to its normal state, and Mrs. Mills, before rising to start
the boy with his delivery of morning newspapers, had given a brief
lecture on the drawback of excessive ambition, the advisability of not
going on to Land's End when you bu