or however much he might tease Norah, and snap at Hilary,
he was always considerate for the feelings and comfort of "Lovely
Lettice!"

"Oh, Norah, Norah! I hope it won't be you!" cried Edna, clasping her
hands round her friend's arm in warm-hearted affection. "What should I
do without you? We have been so happy, and have had such fun! Three
years! What an age of a time! We shall be quite grown-up."

"Yes; and after that, father is going to take a house in London, because
the boys will have left school, and it will be better for them. Isn't
it horrid to think that after to-day it may never be the same for one of
us again? She will only come back as a visitor, for a few weeks at a
time, and everything will be strange and different--"

"And Rex may go abroad before the end of the three years, and Hilary may
marry--and--oh, a hundred other horrible things. Perhaps we may never
meet again all together like this until we are quite old and grey-
headed. We would write to one another, of course; stiff, proper sort of
letters like grown-up people write. How funny it would be! Imagine you
writing to me, Edna--`My dear Eleanora, you must not think my long
silence has arisen from any want of affection towards you and yours. ...
And how has it been with you, my valued friend?'"

The burst of laughter which greeted this speech did something to liven
the gloom which was fast settling upon the little party, and presently
Mr Bertrand's voice was heard calling from the verandah--

"Now then, children, what are we to do until four o'clock? Do you want
to go on the lake?"

"It's no good, sir. We could row round it in ten minutes." This from
Rex, with all the scorn of a young man who owned a _Una_ of his own on
Lake Windermere.

"Do you want to scramble up to the Tarn, then? I don't. It's too hot,
and we should have no time to spend at the top when we got there."

"Let us go to the Wishing Gate, father," suggested Norah eagerly. "It's
a nice walk; and I got what I wished for last summer--I did really--the
music lessons! I'm sure there is something in it."

"Let us go then, by all means. I have a wish of my own that I should be
glad to settle. Helen, will you come?"

"No, thank you, Austin, I will not. I can wish more comfortably sitting
here in the shade of the verandah I've been once before, and I wouldn't
drag up there this afternoon for a dozen wishes."

"And Rayner--what will you--?"

Mr Rayner hesita