to ask you----" and she turned her large,
brown eyes full upon him, and yawned slightly. "Dear me, Agatha is
right; it _is_ hot!"

"Well, I am waiting to give you any information in my power."

"Oh! to be sure, the question. Well, it is a very simple one. Who are
you engaged to?"

Arthur nearly sprang off his chair with astonishment.

"What makes you think that I am engaged?" he asked.

She broke into a merry peal of laughter. Ah! if he could have known
what that laugh cost her.

"What makes me think that you are engaged!" she answered, in a tone of
raillery. "Why, of course you would have been at my feet long ago, if
it had not been so. Come, don't be reticent. I shall not laugh at you.
What is she like?" (Generally a woman's first question about a rival.)
"Is she as good-looking--well, as I am, say--for, though you may not
think it, I have been thought good-looking."

"She is quite different from you; she is very tall and fair, like an
angel in a picture, you know."

"Oh! then there is a 'she,' and a 'she like an angel.' Very different
_indeed_ from me, I should think. How nicely I caught you out;" and
she laughed again.

"Why did you want to catch me out?" said Arthur, on whose ear Mrs.
Carr's tone jarred; he could not tell why.

"Feminine curiosity, and a natural anxiety to fathom the reasons of
your sighs, that is all. But never mind, Mr. Heigham, you and I shall
not quarrel because you are engaged to be married. You shall tell me
the story when you like, for I am sure there is a story--no, not this
afternoon; the sun has given me a headache, and I am going to sleep it
off. Other people's love-stories are very interesting to me, the more
so because I have reached the respectable age of thirty without being
the subject of one myself;" and again she laughed, this time at her
own falsehood. But, when he had gone, there was no laughter in her
eyes, nothing but tears, bitter, burning tears.

"Agatha," said Mildred that evening, "I am sick of this place. I want
to go to the Isle of Wight. It must be quite nice there now. We will
go by the next Currie boat."

"My dear Mildred," replied Miss Terry, aghast, "if you were going back
so soon, why did you not leave me behind you? And just as we were
getting so nicely settled here too, and I shall be so sorry to say
good-bye to that young Heigham, he is such a nice young man! Why don't
you marry him? I really thought you liked him. But, perhaps he is
coming to t