n the gaslight.

"I had a letter from Mr. Oglethorpe yesterday," Priscilla said, at last.
"He is in Vienna now; he asked if you were well. To-night I shall answer
him. Have you any message to send?"

"I?" said Theo. It seemed to her so strange a thing for Miss Priscilla
Gower to say, that her pronoun was almost an interjection.

"I thought, perhaps," said Priscilla, quietly, "that a message from you
would gratify him, if you had one to send."

Theo took up her gloves and began to draw them on, a sudden feeling of
pain or discomfort striking her. It was a feeling scarcely defined
enough to allow her to decide whether it was real pain or only
discomfort.

"I do not think I have any message to send," she replied. "Thank you,
Miss Priscilla."

She took her muff then, and went back to the parlor to kiss Miss
Elizabeth, in a strange frame of mind. She was beginning to feel more
strangely concerning Mr. Denis Oglethorpe, and it was Priscilla Gower
who had stirred her heart. She found Lady Throckmorton waiting at home
for her, to her surprise, in a new mood. She had that evening received a
letter from Denis herself, and it had suggested an idea to her.

"I have been thinking, Theo," she said, "that we might take a run over
the Channel ourselves. I have not been in Paris for four years, and I
believe the change would do me good. The last time I visited the Spas,
my health improved greatly."

It was just like her ladyship to become suddenly possessed of a whim,
and to follow its lead on the spur of the moment. She was a woman of
caprices, and her caprices always ruled the day, as this one did, to
Theo's great astonishment. It seemed such a great undertaking to
Theodora, this voyage of a few hours; but Lady Throckmorton regarded it
as the lightest of matters. To her it was only the giving of a few
orders, being uncomfortably sea-sick for a while, and then landing in
Calais, with a waiting-woman who understood her business, and a
man-servant who was accustomed to travelling. So when Theo broke into
exclamations of pleasure and astonishment, she did not understand either
her enthusiasm or her surprise.

"What," she said, "you like the idea, do you? Well, I think I have made
up my mind about it. We could go next week, and I dare say we could
reach Vienna before Denis Oglethorpe goes away."

Theo became suddenly silent. She gave vent to no further exclamations.
She would almost have been willing to give up the pleasure of