s engaged before we swoop down upon him
demanding his money or his life.'

'Father! as though I should think of you as being engaged! And as for
the money part, I thought this was the very place to come to for
money.'

'Ah! Well, how did you come?'

'The cab's waiting outside.'

'Dear me! You may have noticed, Freydon, that cabmen are a peculiarly
gallant class. They don't show much inclination to drive us about when
we have no money, do they?'

Then he turned to Miss Prinsep. 'And so your brother really starts for
England to-day, Hester? I almost think I'll have to make time to dash
down and wish him luck.'

'Oh, do, Mr. Foster! Tommy would appreciate it.'

'Yes, do, father,' echoed Miss Foster. 'Come with us now. That will be
splendid.'

'No, I can't manage that. You go and buy your flowers, and I'll try
and get away in time to take you both home. Here's a sovereign; and-- Ah!
you'd better have some silver for your cab. H'm! Here you are.'

'Thanks awfully, father. You are a generous dear. That will be lots.
The cab's Gurney's, you see, so I can tell him to put it down in the
account. But the silver's sure to come in handy, for I'm dreadfully
poor just now.'

G.F. shrugged his shoulders, with a comic look in my direction.
'Feminine honesty! Take the silver, and tell the cabman to charge me!
Freydon, perhaps you'd be kind enough to see this brigand and her
friend to their cab, will you? I think we are all clear about that
article, aren't we? Right! On your way ask Stone to come in and see
me, will you?'

So he bowed us out, and I, in a state of most agreeable fluster,
escorted the ladies to their waiting cab.

'Good-bye, Mr. Freydon,' said Mabel Foster as she gave me her softly
gloved little hand over the cab door. And, from that moment, I was her
slave; only realising some few minutes later that I had been so
unpardonably rude as never even to have glanced in Miss Prinsep's
direction, to say nothing of bidding her good-bye.

Miss Foster's was a well recognised and conventional kind of beauty,
very telling to my inexperienced eyes, and richly suggestive of
romance. Her eyes were large, dark, and, as the novelists say,
'melting.' Her face was a perfectly regular oval, having a clear olive
complexion, with warm hints of subdued colour in it. Her lips were
most provocative, and all about the edges of that dark cloud, her
hair, the light played fitfully through a lattice of stray tendrils. A
very pretty