gauntlet, "of all Jimmy's
friends I think I shall like you the best. People who have acted
together ought to be good comrades."

He took the hand. That seemed necessary.

"But I haven't been acting," he said.

"Oh, yes, you have," she answered, "and I have only been on the stage
for a week; while you--well, I suppose you have been on it for at least
two or three years. I am taking my farewell of it this morning, and
you--?"

The boy's face was deeply flushed, but he did not look, or feel,
actually angry.

"I don't know about myself yet," he said.

"Think it all over," the old lady exclaimed. "And now let us have lunch.
I am hungry."

* * * * *

Jimmy arrived that evening.

"How old are you, Claude?" he exclaimed, clapping his friend on the
back.

"I am not sure," Claude replied. "But I almost begin to wish that I were
sixty-four."

THE TEE-TO-TUM

I

Jack Burnham was quite determined not to marry Mrs Lorton, and if there
was one thing in the world upon which she had rigidly set her heart it
was upon refusing him. There were several things about her which he
deliberately disliked. In the first place, she was a widow, and he
always had an uneasy suspicion that widows, like dynamite, were
mysteriously dangerous. Then her Christian name was Harriet, and she
never took afternoon tea. The former of these two facts indicated,
according to his ideas, that her parents were people of bad taste, the
latter that she possessed notions that were against nature. Also, she
was well informed, and knew it. This condition of the mind, he
considered, should be the blessed birthright of the male sex, and he
looked upon her as an usurper. She didn't wear mourning, which implied
that she was forgetful--of dead husbands. Then--well, that was about all
he had against her, and it was quite enough.

As for her, the whole nature of her protested eloquently against the way
he waxed his moustache, against the colour of his brown hair, and of
his brown boots, against his lounging gait, and his opinion of Mr
Gladstone. He had a certain arrogance about him, when with her, which
arose in truth from his fear of her intellectual prowess. This led her
to dub him intolerably conceited. She desired to humble him, and
considered that she could best do so by refusing his offer of marriage.
But she must first persuade him to propose. That was the difficulty.

They were constantly meeting in London. Y