"What on earth would you do?" asked Mavis.

"Lock the door to keep him in," replied Miss Toombs quickly, at which
the two friends laughed immoderately.

As Miss Toombs was leaving the room to wire to her landlady to tell her
that she was staying with friends for the night, she kissed her hand to
Mavis's baby.

"What are you going to call him?" she asked.

"Charlie, of course," promptly replied Mavis.

The next moment, she could have bitten off her tongue for having given
Miss Toombs a possible clue to her lover's identity: she had resolved
never to betray him to a living soul.

But Mavis comforted herself on the score that her friend received her
information without betraying interest or surprise. Twenty minutes
later, Miss Toombs came back, staggering beneath the weight of an
accumulation of parcels, which contained a variety of things that Mavis
might want.

"How could you spend your money on me?" asked Mavis, as the different
purchases were unpacked.

"If one can't have a romance oneself, the next best thing is to be
mixed up in someone else's," replied Miss Toombs.

Mavis and her friend sat down to a supper of strawberries and cream,
whilst they drank claret and soda water. Jill was not forgotten; Miss
Toombs had bought her a pound of meat scraps from the butcher's, which
the dog critically consumed in a corner.

"Let me hear about your romance and all the Melkbridge news," said
Mavis, as she stopped her friend from pouring more cream upon her plate
of strawberries.

"Blow Melkbridge!" exclaimed Miss Toombs, her face hardening.

"But I love it. I'm always thinking about it, and I'd give anything to
go back there."

"Eh!"

"I said I'd give anything to be back there."

"Rot!"

"Why rot?"

"You mustn't dream of going back," cried Miss Toombs anxiously.

"Why on earth not?"

"Eh! Oh, because I say so."

"Does anyone down there know?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Then why shouldn't I go back?"

"There's no reason, only--"

"Only what?"

"Let me tell you of my romance."

"Very well, only--"

"When I tell you I'm in love, I don't think you ought to interrupt,"
remarked Miss Toombs.

"I only wanted to know why I mustn't dream of going back to
Melkbridge," said Mavis anxiously.

"Because I can get you a better job elsewhere. There now!"

"Let's hear of your love affair," said Mavis, partly satisfied by Miss
Toombs's reason for not wishing her to return to the place where her
love