h, they lost no time in seating
themselves at the large table in the window, and making a vigorous
attack upon rolls and butter. The other tables were well filled, and
Hilary held up her head with complacent pride, while Lettice and Norah
nudged each other to call attention to the glances of curiosity and
interest which were directed towards their father.

"A party of Americans, and the waiter whispered to them as we passed.
Oh, father, you are in for it! _Now_--I told you so! The one with the
light hair is getting up. She is going upstairs to bring down the
autograph albums. Wait till you've finished lunch, then it will
be--`Oh, Mr Bertrand, such an honour to meet you; would you be kind
enough to write your name in my little book?'"

Mr Bertrand went through a pantomime of tearing his hair. "Is there no
escape?" he groaned. "It's bad enough to be a lion in town, but I
positively refuse to roar in the country. I won't do it. I have
writer's cramp--I can't use my right hand. Rayner, my boy, I'll turn
them on to you!"

"He is only pretending. He is really awfully pleased and flattered.
Wait till you see how polite he will be when they ask him," said Lettice
mischievously; and, indeed, nothing could have been more courteous than
Mr Bertrand's manner when the American party flocked round him in the
hall after luncheon.

"Your books are in every house in America, sir, and it gives us the
greatest pleasure to have an opportunity of--"

"Oh, come along!" whispered Norah, pulling impatiently at Edna's arm.
"I know it all by heart. Come into the garden, both of you; Lettice and
I have something to tell you--an exciting piece of news!"

"Kitten dead? New ribbons for your hats?" queried Rex indifferently.
He was sceptical on the point of Norah's "exciting confidences," but
this time Lettice looked at him reproachfully with her great, grey eyes.

"No, indeed--don't make fun--it's serious! Miss Carr is going to adopt
one of us to live with her in London as her own daughter, for the next
three years."

"Nonsense!" Rex sat down in a heap on the grass, in front of the bench
where the girls were seated. "Which?"

"Ah, that's the mystery! She is to have her choice, and she won't say
which it is to be until Wednesday night--two days more. So, you see,
you had better be polite, for you mayn't have me with you much longer."

"I am always polite to you," said Rex moodily: and the statement passed
unchallenged, f