nto the house, returning presently with
a small roll of typewritten MS--her latest creation, _Hypocrites_.

"This story," she said quite tremulously--"Oh, I am so anxious, so very
anxious about it. The editor of the _Evening Mail_--has promised to use
one of mine; it will be--well, not quite my first story in print, but
certainly the first one paid for. There is such a difference, isn't
there? Nearly any one can get a story into print if they want no
remuneration. You can understand how anxious I am that it should be
good. I sent it to be typed in town so that it would present a better
appearance. It has just come back by the post. Oh! if you _could_ spare
time to glance at it. Is it too much to ask?"

He laughed at her. "A bit of a story like that--three thousand words at
the most! You are too modest, Miss Bibby. You should have brought me a
packet weighing about half a hundredweight as the rest of them send me."

"No, no;--just that I am pinning all my hopes on _Hypocrites_." A wave
of pink was in her cheeks, her eyes shone softly.

"With the greatest pleasure in life," said Hugh heartily, and tucked the
little roll beneath his arm. "And now I had better go and wash my face,
or Kate will be coming after me with a sponge and towel."

[Illustration: "A wave of pink was in her cheeks, her eyes shone
softly."]

And back he went to "Tenby," while Miss Bibby with a much less heavy
heart returned to her interrupted "one, two, three, four" with Pauline.

CHAPTER XIV

THE LITERARY MICROBE

"We are contagious," Pauline announced honestly and courageously at the
advent of every stranger, however interesting.

And Lynn, equally careful it has been seen, refused to hold any
intercourse with the author at "Tenby" until the searching question,
"Have you had whooping cough?" had been put to him.

Yet here was Hugh Kinross himself taking no precaution whatever to
protect the neighbouring "Greenways" from contagion, and the result was
that the literary microbe was wafted across the road in a surprisingly
short space of time.

Miss Bibby certainly could not be said to be infected for the first
time, though there was no doubt that since the new tenants had come to
"Tenby" the disease had taken a much more aggravated form with her.

But Anna one afternoon made a solemn excursion to the store of Septimus
Smith and purchased one exercise-book, one pen, one bottle of ink and
one blotting-pad.

She had hitherto regard