to his name; and now I hear he has
resigned his appointment"--again that provoking smile, "Once for all,
Nidia; do you intend to marry him?"

"Marry who? John Ames?"

"Yes," with a snap.

"He hasn't asked me."

The innocent artlessness of the tone, the look of absolute and childlike
simplicity in the blue eyes as the answer came tranquilly forth, would
have sent a bystander into convulsions. It sent Mrs Bateman out of the
room in a whirlwind of wrath. After her went the offender.

"Don't get mad, Susie. I can't help being a tease, can I? I was built
that way. Come along out, and we'll drop in on some other frightened
and beleaguered female, and swap camp and laager gossip."

But the other refused. She was seriously put out, she said, and never
felt less like going anywhere. So Nidia, who understood her--at times,
somewhat crusty--friend thoroughly, and managed her accordingly, put on
her hat and went alone.

To do her justice, Mrs Bateman, from her point of view, was not without
cause for concern. Nidia's father--she had lost her mother--was the
senior partner of an exceedingly wealthy firm of shipowners, and had
certainly a more brilliant future planned for his only and idolised
daughter than an alliance with a penniless nobody; for so, with a
certain spiteful emphasis, Mrs Bateman delighted to designate the
object of her abhorrence. The girl had been allowed to accompany her
only after long and much-expressed opposition on the paternal side, and
now she felt simply weighted down with responsibility. And this was the
way in which she had fulfilled her trust!

But fortune seemed inclined to favour her to-day. Scarcely had Nidia
been gone ten minutes, than there came a knock at the door of their
diminutive abode. John Ames himself! Susie Bateman snorted like the
metaphoric warhorse, for she scented battle. She was about to indulge
this obnoxious person with a very considerable fragment of her mind.
Nevertheless she welcomed him pleasantly--almost too pleasantly, thus
overdoing the part. But she had no intention of sending him off at a
tangent, as she knew full well would be the result of letting him know
that Nidia was not in.

Observing him keenly, she noted the quick shade of disappointment as he
became alive to the fact that the room was empty save for herself. She
knew exactly what was passing in his mind, and found a cruel enjoyment
in observing every sign of expectation evoked by this o