'Are you particularly anxious to have me go with you, this morning,
_petite mia_?' James asked, with more animation than he had before
displayed.

"'Indeed I am! I feel babyish to-day, and want to be petted! If you
don't go, I shall think you are beginning to tire of this poor invalid
woman who is so great a trouble to you all.'

"'My mother could never think that,' he said hastily, rising, and moving
close to her sofa, where he stood gently smoothing her beautiful hair
with his hand.

"'Besides,' she went on, 'these women are just no party at all. Mabel's
head is full of the book, and between us, poor little Miss Eaton will
have a wearisome drive of it.'

"'I shall go with you,' James answered, 'my letters can wait till the
next mail.'

"'We have conquered, Mabel!' cried Mrs. Harrington, with that air of
triumph so many women show on such occasions,--a feeling which, I
confess, has always been a mystery to me.

"But just now Mrs. Harrington made a sad mistake when she said that we
had conquered--as if either of us had anything to do with Mr. James'
change of determination! The moment she had announced her intention of
inviting our beautiful neighbor, he had discovered that it was easy for
him to let his correspondence lie over. Either Mrs. Harrington was very
blind, or she chose to ignore a fact that was as palpable as if he had
given utterance to it.

"I felt tired and moody, and half inclined to make that ordinary
feminine fib, a headache, a plea for not making one of the party. I do
not know what I might have said; I dare say something I should have been
sorry for, because I felt strangely perverse and irritable."

CHAPTER XLVIII.

ZILLAH'S LETTER.

"One morning, while we were arranging a drive for the afternoon, General
Harrington entered the room, bringing a letter in his hand.

"'How do you find yourself this morning, fair lady!' he asked,
approaching his wife and kissing her hand with his accustomed
gallantry.

"'Quite well,' she answered, lifting her eyes to his with that lovely
smile of greeting she always had for him, and which made her face so
beautiful.

"'That is the most delightful news that could greet me,' he replied,
with one of his courtly bows. 'How is my paragon of wards?' he
continued, turning to me.

"I answered him pleasantly; he was so elegant and thorough-bred that one
was insensibly forced to restrain even pettish thoughts in his presence.
But I was abashed all the