e a friend's
reputation! I shall never hear the last of it from Gervase, unless I
can tell him that some of the things were used."

It was a merry meal, and lasted for an inordinately long time, and when
it was over the three girls felt that their mutual acquaintance had
progressed by giant strides.

Cynthia went home to give a graphic description of Betty's charms, and
to cry--

"You must, you really must, call upon Mrs Trevor, mother, for I can't
be happy till I know the whole family."

Betty burst into the dining-room in a flutter of excitement, exclaiming
all in a breath--

"She's a darling, a perfect darling; and the Pet was there, and her name
is Cynthia, and she's not pampered a bit. We are awfully good friends;
and what do you think?--only one governess turned up, and there are
heaps and heaps of cakes left. And may Jill and Pam go to tea on Monday
to eat them up?"

As for Nan, she laid her pretty head on her husband's shoulder, and
refused to be comforted.

"No, it was not a failure! I'm not disappointed a bit. I was silly,
and expected too much, but the one who came--oh, Gervase, she was the
very incarnation of homelessness. If she will let me help her, I shall
be quite, quite satisfied?"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

LETTERS.

Christmas approached. Cynthia drove from one big shop to another,
accompanied by mother or governess, and selected costly remembrances for
her friends, Betty Trevor among the rest, for Mrs Alliot had at last
been induced to call on the doctor's wife, and so formally sanction the
girls' friendship. Nan Vanburgh crossed out every day as it passed on
the calendar, and danced for joy at the thought of going "home" for the
festival.

"It's rather rough on me. I flattered myself that I was sufficient for
your happiness," her husband told her, "and--"

"So you are, you darling!" Nan assured him gushingly. "I don't want
anyone else in the world but just you, and father, and mother, and Jim,
and the girls, and Kitty, and Ned, and your old uncle, and Maud's baby--
and--"

"And Cynthia Alliot, and this newly-discovered family at Number 14, and
twenty governesses rolled into one as exemplified by Miss Beveridge, and
a few score of friends scattered up and down the country! What it is to
have married a little soul with a big heart!" cried Gervase, shrugging
his shoulders with an air of martyrdom, though, as a matter of fact, he
was well satisfied with his place in his wife's