Ballth and contherth, and the opera when I go to London,
and--and--muthic--'

'Is that all?'

'You are tho tirethome, Freda; of courthe there are other thingth, but
one cannot think of them all at onthe. Every one ithent tho clever ath
you. Colonel Vaughan thaid I talked quite enough for any young lady.
Gentlemen didn't like ladieth who talked too much.'

'Indeed! Where was your mamma when he said that?'

'Oh! the didn't hear him. Do you know I think the liketh Colonel
Vaughan, and ith jealouth of me. He thaid he would come down when I came
of age, and tho he did, you see, Freda.'

'To your mamma, or you?'

'To me quite alone. But you needn't look tho croth and fierthe, Freda. I
couldn't help hith being polite to me, and paying me complimenth.'

'What compliments?'

'Oh! I can't tell you, he thaid so much about my lookth, that I am thure
he made me bluth.'

'Did you believe him?'

'Yeth; and I think he liketh me better than mamma.'

'Do you think there is any one else in the world besides your mamma and
yourself?'

'Well, yeth, of courth.'

'Then why don't you sometimes talk of some one else? Do you like Colonel
Vaughan, for instance?'

'Oh! I never thaw any one in my life I like tho much, except Rowland
Prothero. He ith younger. Mamma thaith--'

'There again, Wilhelmina!'

'I forgot--you are tho quick, Freda. Don't you like Colonel Vaughan?'

'Pretty well sometimes.'

'What a colour you have, Freda. You thouldn't draw tho much. I with I
had a tathte for drawing. Colonel Vaughan drawth tho well!'

'What can his drawing well have to do with your drawing?'

'He would look over my drawing then ath he doth yourth, Freda. He thaith
you are very clever. But you mutht be nearly five-and-twenty, Freda; and
he thaith no woman ought ever to be more than twenty-one,'

'When did he favour you with that remark? I think I once heard him say
twenty-five was the most charming age of all.'

At this part of the conversation the subject of it entered the room, and
whilst Freda's colour rose higher and higher, and she stooped more
closely over her drawing, Miss Nugent got up and greeted him with great
delight. Freda made up her mind not to speak, that she might listen to
the conversation that ensued.

'Are all the preparations progressing, Miss Nugent? What are we to do to
celebrate the great event?' asked the colonel.

'There ith to be an oxth roathed for the poor people, and tea on the
lawn, and a ball in