unless I am disturbing you, I will remain here,' says Paul,
'there are some letters I must write,' and going to the table he
proceeds to hunt for paper and pens; Lippa goes on reading her book, and
a silence of a few minutes ensues.

Then he says, 'What wretched pens you do keep--'

'Yes,' replies she, 'they are rather bad, but I think you will find some
others in the right hand drawer--have you ever read this?' holding up
her volume.

'The "Epic of Hades," yes, parts of it are very fine. "There is an end
of all things that thou seest. There is an end of wrong and death and
hell,"' quotes he.

'What a melancholy passage,' says Lippa.

'A very grand one I think,' he replies, 'but I should never have thought
you would care for that kind of literature.'

'Why not?--'

'Because, well, I should have thought it would have been too deep for
you--'

'Really,' then after a pause, 'do you know _that_ wasn't very polite--'

'Wasn't it? suppose I say then that I am agreeably surprised--'

'That's nearly as bad, if not quite, it sounds as if you expected me to
read nothing but books like the "Daisy Chain," or "Laneton Parsonage."'

'Very excellent books too--'

'Oh, Paul! how _tiresome_ you are, do you know I,' and then Miss Seaton
is filled with confusion, she has called him by his Christian name and
he is looking at her and smiling. 'I--er beg your pardon,' she says
quickly in her childish way.

'What for?' asks he, pretending not to understand her.

'For calling you by your Christian name--'

'Well, and what harm was there?'

'You see,' she says deprecatingly, 'Mabel is always talking about you,
and so I get into the habit of talking of you as Paul.'

Paul rises and standing in front of her says--'As I said before, where
is the harm? I have never called you anything else but Philippa, or
Lippa; I could not address you as Miss Seaton, it does not suit you one
bit you know; now let us make it a compact from henceforth, I call you
Lippa, and you call me Paul.'

'Very well,' replies she.

'What ever are you two doing here,' and the curtain is hastily drawn
aside by Mabel. 'You look as grave as judges, come and have some
strawberries and cream, Lady Dadford has gone.'

At the sound of strawberries, Lippa hastily rises, and they go into the
front room, where Jimmy Dalrymple is.

'How do you do,' says Philippa, wondering how long he has been there.
And then they attack the strawberries.

'I'm longing to kno