hten a mouse. You will feel at home with her in five minutes.
I only wish she knew Lettice. We must arrange for her to come over some
time."

Norah looked at him with a feeling of curiosity which was not altogether
agreeable. "Why do you wish that she knew Lettice! Do you think she
would like her better than me?"

"Oh, yes," said Rex easily. (He was just like other boys, Norah told
herself, and had not the slightest regard for a poor girl's feelings!)
"She is such a jolly, affectionate little thing, you know, that Edna
would take to her at once. And she has heard so much of `Lovely
Lettice'! I say, _isn't_ she pretty?"

"Yes, she is--lovely! It's a very good name for her." Norah spoke with
all the greater emphasis because, for the moment, she had been guilty of
an actual pang of envy of her beloved Lettice, for she regarded the
"strange boy" as her special friend, by virtue of having been the first
to make his acquaintance, and it was not agreeable to find her own
claims to popularity brushed aside in this unceremonious fashion.
"Lettice is a darling, and everyone likes her, because she is sweet-
tempered, and never says unkind things to make other people miserable,"
she added, not without the hope that Mr Rex would take the hint to
himself. He did nothing of the sort, however, but only yawned, thought
he must be going, and marched away with stoical unconsciousness of the
aching little heart which he had left behind.

On Thursday morning Rex duly drove up to the door in his father's dog-
cart. He was a little before his time, but Norah was waiting for him,
wrapped up in her warm scarlet coat; her violin case and bag ready on
the hall table. Before he came she had been lamenting loudly, because
she felt a conviction that something would happen to prevent his
arrival; but when it came to setting off, she was seized with an attack
of shyness, and hung back in hesitating fashion. "Oh, oh! I don't like
it a bit. I feel horrid. Don't you think father would drive over, and
bring me home to-night?"

"H-ush! No! Don't be foolish, Norie! You will enjoy it ever so much
when you get there. Remember everything to tell me to-morrow,"
whispered Lettice encouragingly, and Norah climbed up into the high seat
and waved her hand to her two sisters until a turn of the drive hid them
from sight.

"If you want to cry, don't mind me!" said Rex coolly, which remark
served better than anything else could possibly have