who opened the
door, 'Has Lord Rothery not come, then?'

Stella, shaken out of her reserve, started up as the junior partner of
Baines, Jones & Co. came forward and shook hands gravely with her.

'Miss Wharton, you look surprised; surely you expected to see me here?'
he asked.

'No, I did not; it was only this afternoon that I knew that Mr. Montague
Jones had any connection with your firm. I did not know you were to be
invited to meet me,' said Stella.

'Invited! I need no invitation to my father's house; but if you object
to my presence I can easily dine at my club. I particularly told my
mother to ask you if it made any difference, and I understood her to say
it did not;' and then he wound up hotly, 'I do not know what I have done
to make you think me such a cad as to intrude my presence upon you when
I see it is so distasteful.'

Ten minutes later, when Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava came in laden with
flowers, Stella was sitting on the sofa, and at their entrance Mr. James
Jones, who was sitting beside her (as Vava noted with surprise), rose,
and taking Stella's hand brought her to his mother, saying, 'Mother,
this is my future wife.'

'It isn't! How dare you? Leave her hand alone!' cried Vava, starting
forward, and then, as it dawned upon her that _it was_, she stood still
and stared at them all; for Mrs. Jones, with a cry of delight, went
forward to Stella, and Mr. Jones, who came in then, seemed to be just as
delighted and not a bit surprised, though he said it was a pleasant
surprise; and, oddest of all, Lord Rothery--who had cared for Stella
himself once--now arrived on the scene, congratulated them both most
heartily, and said, 'I was a true prophet. I guessed this would be the
next news.'

This caused Vava to exclaim with indignation, 'How could you possibly,
when _I_ knew nothing about it, nor how they met--or anything? They'd
quarrelled for ever a week ago!'

'Ah! that's a sure sign,' said Lord Rothery, teasing her. He had left
the Jones family to make much of Stella, and took Vava to a window to
console her, for he saw that she was more angry than pleased.

'I believe it's an awful mistake,' she confided to him.

'Not a bit of it; they are frightfully in love with each other. He's a
splendid fellow, and quite a gentleman,' declared the young lord.

'Then they've been horridly deceitful about it, for Stella never would
be decently civil to him while I was there, and left him last week; and
now I