ing."

"You don't mind being sent with notes, do you?" said Bertie blandly.

"That's as may be," the girl answered.

"I should have thought it was pleasant work. At any rate, it's as easy
to take two as one, isn't it?"

"I have to take 'em, 'cause I'm paid to, you see, easy or not."

"Oh, of course you ought to be paid." His fingers were in his
waistcoat-pocket, and some coins that chinked agreeably were transferred
to her hand, together with the sealed letter. "You've saved me a walk to
Standon Square," he said.

The girl laughed, looking down at her money: "It wouldn't have hurt
you, I dare say. You oughtn't to make much of a walk there. How about an
answer?"

"Oh, I shall get an answer when I come to-morrow." He nodded a careless
farewell, and went a little out of his way to avoid Gordon's brother,
who was visible in the distance.

Susan turned the missive over in her hand. "It's sealed tight enough,"
she remarked to herself. "What did he want to do that for?" She eyed it
discontentedly: "I hate such suspicious ways. Wouldn't there be a
flare-up if I just handed it over to the old maid? I won't, though, for
she's give me warning, and he's a deal more free with his money than
she'd ever be--stingy old cat! But wouldn't there be a flare-up? My!"
And Susan, who had an ungratified taste for the sensational, looked at
the address and smiled to think of the power she possessed.

Before she slipped the letter into her pocket she sniffed doubtfully at
the envelope, and tossed her head in scorn: "I thought so! Smells of
tobacco." It was true, for Lisle, as we know, had smoked while he
revised his composition. "If I were a young man going a-courting I'd
scent my letters with rose or something nice, and I'd write 'em on pink
paper--I would!" Susan reflected. But Lisle was wiser. There is no
perfume for a young ladies' school like a whiff of cigar-smoke. To that
prim, half convent-like seclusion, where manners are being formed and
the proprieties are strictly observed, it comes as a pleasant suggestion
of something worldly and masculine, just a little wicked and altogether
delightful.

So Lisle went on his way to St. Sylvester's, lighter of heart for having
met Susan and got rid of the letter. While it was still in his pocket
nothing was absolutely settled, in spite of that half-crown which had
represented inexorable Destiny the night before. But now that it was
gone, further thought about it was happily unnecessary,