ased to call Florence and Mr. Trevor.

Presently she saw her daughter coming up the somewhat steep path alone.

"Flo, Flo, child, where is he? is he coming?"

"Oh, no, mother," said Florence.

"Did you give him my invitation?"

"I told him he was not to accept it," said Florence. "Oh, dear me,
mother, don't be silly. But, I say, what a nice lobster, and I am so
hungry."

CHAPTER VII.

THE CHAINS BEGIN TO FRET.

Meanwhile Trevor went slowly back to the hotel. He had enjoyed his talk
with Florence; he liked her brusque way, she did not flatter him, and
she was, he considered, a particularly attractive-looking girl. In Mrs.
Aylmer's society he was made a great deal of and fussed over, and when
that happens to a young man he always enjoys the sort of girl who snubs
him by way of contrast. He thought Mrs. Aylmer the less one of the most
extraordinary women he had ever met; but as he liked Florence, and was
in the mood for a bit of an adventure, he would gladly have accepted her
mother's invitation to supper if she had not tabooed it.

"You are not to come," said Florence, looking at him with her wide-open
frank dark eyes; "mother is the soul of hospitality, but we are very
poor: we have nothing proper to give you for supper, and I for one would
much rather you did not come."

"I do not in the least mind what I eat," he said, in a somewhat pleading
tone, and he looked full at Florence with his blue eyes.

"Nevertheless, you are not to come; it is only my mother's way: she
always goes on like that with strangers. I never allow people to accept
her invitations."

After this there was nothing more to be said, and Florence and Trevor
bade each other a very friendly good-bye.

When Trevor reached the "Crown and Garter" he found that Mrs. Aylmer and
Miss Keys were already at dinner. They had both wondered where he was,
and Bertha Keys had been a little anxious and a little uneasy. When he
came in, the faces of both ladies brightened.

"What makes you so late?" said Mrs. Aylmer, looking up at him.

"I had a bit of an adventure," he said. He drew his chair to the table.
"There was a slight chance of my not coming in to supper at all," he
continued. "I met that charming little lady who visited you to-day, Mrs.
Aylmer."

"What?" said Mrs. Aylmer, dropping her knife and fork.

"I met her again, and she introduced me to her daughter and to another
young lady who is staying with them. By the way, they are your