'm afraid I prefer the other fiction, then,' said Mabel. 'I like to
sympathise with the characters, and you can't sympathise with an ideal
hero and heroine. I hope you will let your heroine have one or two
little weaknesses, Mr. Ernstone.'

'Now you are laughing at me,' said Mark, more humbly. 'I must leave
you to judge between the two books, and if I can only win your
approval, Miss Langton, I shall prize it more than I dare to say.'

'If it is at all like "Illusion----" Oh, I forgot,' Mabel broke off
suddenly. 'That is forbidden ground, isn't it? And now, will you come
into the drawing-room and be introduced to my mother? We shall find
some tea there.'

Mrs. Langton was a little sleepy after a long afternoon of
card-leaving and call-paying, but she was sufficiently awake to be
gracious when she had quite understood who Mark was.

'So very kind of you to write to my little daughter about such
nonsense,' she said. 'Of course I don't mean that the story itself was
anything of the kind, but little girls have such silly fancies--at
least mine seem to have. _You_, were just the same at Dolly's age,
Mabel.... Now _I_ never recollect worrying myself about such ideas....
I'm sure I don't know how they get it. But I hear it is such a
wonderful book you have written, Mr. Ernstone. I've not read it yet.
My wretched health, you know. But really, when I think how clever you
must be, I feel quite afraid to talk to you. I always consider it must
require so _much_ cleverness and--and perseverance--you know, to write
_any_ book.'

'Oh, Mabel, only think,' cried Dolly, now quite herself again, from
one of the window-seats, 'Frisk has run away again, and been out ever
since yesterday morning. I forgot that just now. So Mr. Ernstone can't
see him after all!'

And Mabel explained to her mother that they had recognised in the
author of 'Illusion' the unknown rescuer of Dolly's dog.

'You mustn't risk such a valuable life as yours is now any more,' said
Mrs. Langton, after purring out thanks which were hazily expressed,
owing to an imperfect recollection of the circumstances. 'You must be
more selfish after this, for other people's sakes.'

'I'm afraid such consideration would not be quite understood,' said
Mark, laughing.

'Oh, you must expect to be misunderstood, else there would be no merit
in it, would there?' said Mrs. Langton, not too lucidly. 'Dolly, my
pet, there's something scratching outside the door. Run and see what
i