g drink out of anything we drink out of ourselves."

My brother-in-law looked rather comically penitent; he did not attempt
to deny the charge.

"Only, my dear, you must allow," he pleaded, "that we do not drink our
tea out of the _saucers_."

On what trifling links hang sometimes important results! Had it not been
for Mark's transgressing in the matter of Tiny's milk we should never
have learnt the circumstances which give to this simple relation of
facts--valueless in itself--such interest, speculative and suggestive
only, I am aware, as it may be found to possess.

Lily, in the meantime, had disappeared. But more quickly than it would
have taken her to ring the bell, and await the servant's response to the
summons, she was back again, carrying something carefully in her hand.

"Aunt," she said, "is it not a good idea? As you have a tea-spoon--I
don't suppose Tiny used the spoon, did he?--I thought, instead of
ringing for another, I would bring out the ghost-cup for Sir Robert. It
is only fair to use it for once, poor thing, and just as we have been
speaking about it. Oh, I assure you it is not dusty," as my sister
regarded it dubiously. "It was inside the cabinet."

"Still, all the same, a little hot water will do it no harm," said her
aunt--"provided, that is to say, that Sir Robert has no objection to
drink out of a cup with such a name attached to it?"

"On the contrary," replied he, "I shall think it an honour. But you
will, I trust, explain the meaning of the name to me? It puzzles me
more than if it were a piece of ancient china--a great-great-grandmother's
cup, for instance. For I see it is not old, though it is very pretty,
and, I suppose, uncommon?"

There was a slight tone of hesitation about the last word which struck
me.

"I have no doubt my sister will be ready to tell you all there is to
tell. It was she who gave me the cup," replied the lady of the house.

Then Sir Robert turned to me. Looking at him full in the face I saw that
there was a thoughtful, far-seeing look in his eyes, which redeemed his
whole appearance from the somewhat commonplace gentlemanliness which was
all I had before observed about him.

"I am greatly interested in these subjects," he said. "It would be very
kind of you to tell me the whole."

I did so, more rapidly and succinctly of course than I have done here.
It is not easy to play the part of narrator, with five or six pairs of
eyes fixed upon you, more especially