willing, he gave the order to the chauffeur, and they
went off, Stella in front with Mr. Jones, and Vava behind with his wife.

'Miss Wharton,' said the old man, when they had got some way out, 'I
don't want to bother you with business out of business hours; but I must
tell you how sorry I am you have left our firm.'

'Your firm, Mr. Jones?' exclaimed Stella in surprise.

'Yes! Surely James told you?' he replied.

'No, but it would have made no difference; I prefer to be where I am. I
do not wish to be rude, Mr. Jones; but I think we had better not discuss
the subject,' said Stella.

So Mr. Jones, finding he could do no good, changed the conversation, and
talked so well on all sorts of topics that Stella, who had been
excellently educated, and had been used to the society of a literary
father, found her companion very entertaining.

Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava noted this with satisfaction. 'They are
getting on very well,' said the former with a nod of her head.

'That's a blessing. Stella really is a very great trial to me,'
announced Vava quite gravely.

Mrs. Montague Jones laughed heartily. 'I wonder what she would say if
she heard you?' she replied.

'She would ask me quite solemnly what I meant, and I should not be able
to tell her,' observed Vava.

'You ought to be proud to have such a beautiful sister; every one was
asking me to-day who she was,' said Mrs. Jones.

'Beauty is a snare and a delusion for a City clerk, didn't they all say
when you told them who she was?' asked Vava.

'I did not say what she did. I told them she was the daughter of a
Scotch laird, and that you were her sister. They did not ask me her
occupation; we are not so rude in the City,' answered Mrs. Jones.

Vava sighed. 'It was much nicer before,' she remarked.

Mrs. Jones looked sympathetically at Vava; she had no daughters, only
the one son, and she would have liked nothing better than to adopt this
girl if it had been possible; but as she knew it to be impossible she
did not even speak of a plan she had in her head of taking them away for
Easter, which silence cost her some self-denial.

When they arrived at Belgrave Square, Vava, who as usual had made
herself quite at home, went off with Mrs. Jones to get some flowers from
the conservatory, and Stella was left in the drawing-room; but she had
not been there two minutes when the door opened, and a tall, gentlemanly
young man in evening-dress came in, saying to the footman