and we have made up our quarrel?"

Then Ethel looked at him again. She did not believe him. She was sure
that Dora was not the only evoker of the unbounded satisfaction in
Bryce Denning's face and manner. But she let the reason pass; she had
no likely arguments to use against it. And that day Mrs. Denning, with a
slight air of injury, opened the subject of Mr. Mostyn's introduction to
them. She thought Ethel had hardly treated the Dennings fairly. Everyone
was wondering they had not met him. Of course, she knew they were not
aristocrats and she supposed Ethel was ashamed of them, but, for her
part, she thought they were as good as most people, and if it came to
money, they could put down dollar for dollar with any multi-millionaire
in America, or England either, for that matter.

When the reproach took this tone there seemed to be only one thing for
Ethel to say or to do; but that one thing was exactly what she did not
say or do. She took up Mrs. Denning's reproach and complained that "her
relative and friend had been purposely and definitely ignored. Dora had
told her plainly she did not wish to make Mr. Mostyn's acquaintance;
and, in accord with this feeling, no one in the Denning family had
called on Mr. Mostyn, or shown him the least courtesy. She thought the
whole Rawdon family had the best of reasons for feeling hurt at the
neglect."

This view of the case had not entered Mrs. Denning's mind. She was
quickly sorry and apologetic for Dora's selfishness and her own
thoughtlessness, and Ethel was not difficult to pacify. There was then
no duty so imperative as the arrangement of a little dinner for Mr.
Mostyn. "We will make it quite a family affair," said Mrs. Denning,
"then we can go to the opera afterwards. Shall I call on Mr. Mostyn at
the Holland House?" she asked anxiously.

"I will ask Bryce to call," said Dora. "Bryce will do anything to please
me now, mother."

In this way, Bryce Denning's desires were all arranged for him, and that
evening Dora made her request. Bryce heard it with a pronounced pout of
his lips, but finally told Dora she was "irresistible," and as his time
for pleasing her was nearly out, he would even call on the Englishman at
her request.

"Mind!" he added, "I think he is as proud as Lucifer, and I may get
nothing for my civility but the excuse of a previous engagement."

But Bryce Denning expected much more than this, and he got all that he
expected. The young men had a common gro