who
had not the slightest idea of the real meaning of it, had shrugged
his shoulders. After all, let her have her own way to the last.
There would be enough to pay the debts and a little over for her;
and for him, poverty, a new life, and emancipation. He is tired of
his mother's rule. "And how small!" goes on Mrs. Chichester, a tall
young woman with light hair and queer eyes, whose husband is abroad
with his regiment. "Like a doll. I love dolls; don't you, Captain
Marryatt?"

"Are _you_ a doll?" asks Captain Marryatt, who is leaning over her.

He is always leaning over her!

"I never know what I am," says Mrs. Chichester frankly, her queer
eyes growing a little queerer. "But Miss Bolton, how delightful she
is! so natural, and Nature is always so--so----"

"Natural!" supplies Mr. Gower, who is lying on a rug watching the
game below.

"Oh, get out!" says Mrs. Chichester, whose manners are not her
strong point.

She is sitting on a garden chair behind him, and she gives him a
little dig in the back with her foot as she speaks.

"Don't! I'm bad there!" says he.

"I believe you are bad everywhere," says she, with a pout.

"Then you believe wrong! My heart is a heart of gold," says Mr.
Gower ecstatically.

"I'd like to see it," says Mrs. Chichester, who is not above a
flirtation with a man whom she knows is beyond temptation; and truly
Randal Gower is hard to get at!

"Does that mean that you would gladly see me dead?" asks he. "Oh,
cruel woman!"

"I'm tired of seeing you as you are, any way," says she, tilting her
chin. "Why don't you fall in love with somebody, for goodness'
sake?"

"Well, I'm trying," says Mr. Gower, "I'm trying hard; but," looking
at her, "I don't seem to get on. You don't encourage me, you know,
and I'm very shy!"

"There, don't be stupid," says Mrs. Chichester, seeing that Marryatt
is growing a little enraged. "We were talking of Miss Bolton. We
were saying----"

"That she was Nature's child."

"Give me Nature!" says Captain Marryatt, breaking into the
_t