any
hospitality upon her.

"His little girl!" he murmured. "Monty's little girl!"

CHAPTER XVI

Ernestine Wendermott travelled back to London in much discomfort,
being the eleventh occupant of a third-class carriage in a particularly
unpunctual and dilatory train. Arrived at Waterloo, she shook out her
skirts with a little gesture of relief and started off to walk to the
Strand. Half-way across the bridge she came face to face with a tall,
good-looking young man who was hurrying in the opposite direction. He
stopped short as he recognised her, dropped his eyeglass, and uttered a
little exclamation of pleasure.

"Ernestine, by all that's delightful! I am in luck to-day!"

She smiled slightly and gave him her hand, but it was evident that this
meeting was not wholly agreeable to her.

"I don't quite see where the luck comes in," she answered. "I have no
time to waste talking to you now. I am in a hurry."

"You will allow me," he said hopefully, "to walk a little way with you?"

"I am not able to prevent it--if you think it worth while," she
answered.

He looked down--he was by her side now--in good-humoured protest.

"Come, Ernestine," he said, "you mustn't bear malice against me. Perhaps
I was a little hasty when I spoke so strongly about your work. I don't
like your doing it and never shall like it, but I've said all I want to.
You won't let it divide us altogether, will you?"

"For the present," she answered, "it occupies the whole of my time, and
the whole of my thoughts."

"To the utter exclusion, I suppose," he remarked, "of me?"

She laughed gaily.

"My dear Cecil! when have I ever led you to suppose for a moment that I
have ever wasted any time thinking of you?"

He was determined not to be annoyed, and he ignored both the speech and
the laugh.

"May I inquire how you are getting on?"

"I am getting on," she answered, "very well indeed. The Editor is
beginning to say very nice things to me, and already the men treat me
just as though I were a comrade! It is so nice of them!"

"Is it?" he muttered doubtfully.

"I have just finished," she continued, "the most important piece of work
they have trusted me with yet, and I have been awfully lucky. I have
been to interview a millionaire!"

"A man?"

She nodded. "Of course!"

"It isn't fit work for you," he exclaimed hastily.

"You will forgive me if I consider myself the best judge of that," she
answered coldly. "I am a journalist, an