sighed deeply.

"If we find this scheme work well, as far as it goes," observed the
President, cheerfully, "we can easily render it as much more stringent
as occasion may require. And now, what can Miss Janet tell us on this
subject? Can she give information of any tea being drunk in the nursery
at home?"

"Oh! to be sure," said Janet. "Nurse often lets me have some with her;
and Katie fills Flora's doll's teapot out of her own, almost every
afternoon."

"Bless my soul!" cried Lord Carse, starting from his seat in
consternation. "My servants drink tea in my house! Off they shall go--
every one of them who does it."

"Oh! papa. No; pray papa!" implored Janet. "They will say I sent them
away. Oh! I wish nobody had asked me anything about it."

"It was my doing," said the President. "My dear lord, I make it my
request that your servants may be forgiven."

Lord Carse bowed his acquiescence; but he shook his head, and looked
very gloomy about such a thing happening in his house. The President
agreed with him that it must not happen again, on pain of instant
dismissal.

The President next invited Janet to the drawing-room to see a grey
parrot, brought hither since her last visit--a very entertaining
companion in the evenings, the President declared. He told Lord Carse
he would be back in three minutes, and so he was--with a lady on his
arm, and that lady was--Lady Carse.

She was not flushed now, nor angry, nor forward. She was quiet and
ladylike, while in the house of one of the most gentlemanly men of his
time. If her husband had looked at her, he would have seen her so much
like the woman he wooed and once dearly loved, that he might have
somewhat changed his feelings towards her. But he went abruptly to the
window when he discovered who she was, and nothing could make him turn
his head. Perhaps he was aware how pale he was, and desired that she
should not see it.

The President placed the lady in a chair, and then approached Lord
Carse, and laid his hand on his shoulder, saying, "You will forgive me
when you know my reasons. I want you to join me in prevailing on this
good lady to give up a design which I think imprudent--I will say,
wrong."

It was surprising, but Lady Carse for once bore quietly with somebody
thinking her wrong. Whatever she might feel, she said nothing. The
President went on.

"Lady Carse--"

He felt, as his hand lay on his friend's shoulder, that he winced, as if
t