m, what a bear you are to-day!" And to Shiela, who was laughing: "He
snapped and growled at Gussie Vetchen and he glared and glowered at
Livingston Cuyp, and he's scarcely vouchsafed a word to me this
afternoon except the civility you have just heard. Jim, I _will_ ask you
how many lumps--"

"O Lord! Britain triumphant! Two--I think; ten if you wish,
Constance--or none at all. Miss Cardross, you wouldn't say such things
to me, would you?"

"Don't answer him," interposed Constance; "if you do you'll take him
away, and I haven't another man left! Why are you such a dreadful
devastator, Miss Cardross?... Here's your tea, James. Please turn around
and occupy yourself with my nephew; I'd like a chance to talk to Miss
Cardross."

The girl had seated herself beside Miss Palliser, and, as Wayward moved
over to the other table, she gave him a perverse glance, so humourous
and so wholly adorable that Constance Palliser yielded to the charm with
an amused sigh of resignation.

"My dear," she said, "Miss Suydam and I are going North very soon, and
we are coming to see your mother at the first opportunity."

"Mother expects you," said the girl simply. "I did not know that she
knew Miss Suydam--or cared to."

Something in the gentle indifference of the words sent the conscious
blood pulsing into Miss Palliser's cheeks. Then she said frankly:

"Has Virginia been rude to you?"

"Yes--a little."

"Unpardonably?"

"N-no. I always can pardon."

"You dear!" said Constance impulsively. "Listen; Virginia does snippy
things at times. I don't know why and she doesn't either. I know she's
sorry she was rude to you, but she seems to think her rudeness too
utterly unpardonable. May I tell her it isn't?"

"If you please," said Shiela quietly.

Miss Palliser looked at her, then, succumbing, took her hand in hers.

"No wonder people like you, Miss Cardross."

"Do _you_?"

"How could I escape the popular craze?" laughed Miss Palliser, a trifle
embarrassed.

"That is not an answer," returned Shiela, the smile on her red lips
faintly wistful. And Constance surrendered completely.

"You sweet, cunning thing," she said, "I do like you. You are perfectly
adorable, for one reason; for the other, there is something--a nameless
something about you--"

"Quite--nameless," said the girl under her breath.

A little flash of mist confused Miss Palliser's eyesight for a moment;
her senses warned her, but her heart was calling.

"Dear,"