g challenge in Olga's fiery hazel eyes.

Leaning a little forward to note the effect, the latter began and
recited with much skill the entire words of "Maud Muller." Whenever
the name of the Judge was pronounced, she looked at Mr. Palma, and
there was peculiar emphasis in her rendition of the lines:

"But the lawyers smiled that afternoon,
When he hummed in court an old love tune.
* * * * *
He wedded a wife of richest dower,
Who lived for fashion, as he for power."

How had Olga discovered the secret which he believed so securely
locked in his own heart? Not a muscle moved in his cold guarded face,
but a faint flush stole across his cheek as he met her sparkling
gaze.

Mrs. Carew's rosy lip curled scornfully:

"My dear Miss Neville, should you ever be smitten by the blasts of
adversity, your charming recitative talent would prove wonderfully
remunerative upon the stage."

"Thanks! but my observation leads me to believe that at the present
day the profession of the Sycophants pays the heaviest dividends.
Does Cleopatra's fondness for figs enable her to appreciate my
worldly wisdom?"

Regina knew that Olga meant mischief to both host and guest, and
though she did not comprehend the drift of her laughing words, she
noticed the sudden smile that flashed over her guardian's
countenance, and the perplexed expression of Mrs. Carew's eyes.

"Miss Neville has as usual floundered into her favourite blue mire,
whose stale scraps of learning cannot tempt me to pursuit."

"Not into the mud of the Nile, oh celestial Isis! but into the
classic lore of Hellas. Ask Mr. Palma why I am opposed to smuggling
figs, especially rose-coloured figs?"

Olga's light laugh was particularly irritating and disagreeable at
that moment, and her mother, who was a ubiquitous flag of truce on
such occasions, hastened to interpose.

"My daughter, what possible connection can Mrs. Carew or anybody else
find between the habit of sycophancy and baskets of figs?"

"Dear mamma, to explain it to you might be construed into an unfilial
and irreverent reflection upon the insufficiency of your education,
and of that admission nothing could induce me to be guilty. But
Regina yonder is still in the clutches of Dominie Sampson, and as she
is such an innocent stupid young dove, I will have mercy upon her
curiously questioning eyes. My dear rustic 'Maud,' Sycophants means
_