ind of forbidden city, where Don Pedro reigns as
Inca, and I expect we shall have a jolly time. I hear there is some big
game shooting there."

"What about your soldiering?" asked Hope, rather, surprised at this
extended tour being arranged.

"Oh, my husband has left the army," pouted Inez. "His duties kept him
away from me nearly all the day, and I grew weary of being left alone."

"So you see, Mrs. Hope," laughed Random gayly, "that I have had to
succumb to my fireside tyrant. We shall go and see this fairy city and
then return to my home in Oxfordshire. There Inez will settle down as
a real English wife and I'll turn a country squire. So, after all our
troubles, peace will come."

"And as you will not come to my country," said Lady Random to her
hostess, "you cannot refuse to visit Frank and myself at the Grange.
We have had so much trouble together that we cannot lose sight of each
other."

"No," said Lucy, kissing her. "We will come to Oxfordshire."

So it was arranged, and the next day Mr. and Mrs. Hope went over to
Monte Carlo to see the last of Sir Frank and his wife. They stood on
the heights watching the pretty little steamer making for South America.
Archie noticed that his wife's face was somewhat sad.

"Are you sorry we did not go, sweetheart?"

"No," she replied, placing her arm within his own. "I only want to be
with you."

"That is all right." He patted her hand. "Now that we have sold all the
furniture in the Pyramids, and have got rid of the lease, there will be
nothing to remind you of the green mummy."

"Yet I can't help thinking of my unfortunate step-father, and of poor
Mrs. Jasher, and of Sidney Bolton. Oh, Archie, little as we can afford
it, I am glad that we allow Mrs. Bolton a small sum a year. After all,
it was through my step-father that her son met with his death."

"I don't quite agree with you, dear. Cockatoo's innate savagery was the
cause, as Professor Braddock did not intend or desire murder. But there,
dear, do not think any more about these dismal things. Dream of the time
when I shall be the president of the Royal Academy, and you my lady."

"I am your lady now. But," added Lucy, perhaps from an association of
ideas of color and the Academy, "I shall hate green for the rest of my
life."

"That's unlucky, considering it is Nature's color. My dear, in a year or
two this tragedy, or rather the three tragedies, will seem like a dream.
I won't listen to another word now. T