ng dinner
back, and that her mother and Fenwick had not reappeared, having been
away since they parted. Not displeased, because it gave her time to
settle down--the expression she made use of, to think with; not with
any admission, however, that she either felt or looked unusually
_exaltee_--but surprised, because it was eight o'clock, and she felt
that even Mrs. Lobjoit's good-nature might have limits.

But while she was settling down, in a happy, excited dream she half
wondered that she did not wake from, back came the truants; and she
heard from her room above Mrs. Lobjoit's report that Miss Sally was
gone upstairs to get ready, with the faintest hint of reproach in the
tone. Then her mother's "Don't stop to read letters, Gerry--that'll
do after," and Fenwick's "All right!" not followed by immediate
obedience. Then, after half a moment's delay, in which she felt
some surprise at herself for not going out to meet them coming up
the stairs, her mother's voice approaching, that asked where the
kitten was.

"Oh, here you are, chick!--how long have you been in? Why, Sallykin!
what is it, child?... Oh, Gerry--Gerry--come up here and hear this!"
For the merpussy, in spite of many stoical resolutions, had merged
a beginning of verbal communication in a burst of happy tears on her
mother's bosom.

And when Fenwick, coming upstairs three steps at a time, filled the
whole house with "Hullo, Sarah! what's the latest intelligence?" this
young lady had only just time to pull herself together into something
like dignified self-possession, in order to reply ridiculously--how
could she have been our usual Sally, else?--"We-ell! I don't see that
it's anything so very remarkable, after all. I've been encouraging
my medical adviser's attentions, if you want to know, Jeremiah."

Was it only a fancy of Sally's, as she ended off a hurried toilet, for
Mrs. Lobjoit's sake, or did her mother say to Fenwick, "Well!--_that_
is something delightful, at any rate"? As though it were in some sense
a set-off against something not delightful elsewhere.

CHAPTER XLII

OF A RECURRENCE FROM _AS YOU LIKE IT_ AND HOW FENWICK DIDN'T. WHY A
SAILOR WOULD NOT LEARN TO SWIM. THE BARON AGAIN. OF A CUTTLE-FISH
AND HIS SQUIRT. OF THE POWER OF _A PRIORI_ REASONING. OF SALLY'S
CONFESSION, AND HOW FENWICK WENT TO A FIRST-CLASS HOTEL

When Fenwick turned back towards home, ostensibly to shorten
Rosalind's visit to the doctor's mother, he had no