elf for Miss Todd's party, would
not believe that the matter was hopeless. The quarrels of lovers have
ever been the renewal of love, since the day when a verb between two
nominative cases first became possessed of the power of agreeing
with either of them. There is something in this sweet easiness of
agreement which seems to tend to such reconciliations. Miss Baker was
too good a grammarian to doubt the fact.

She would probably, under existing circumstances, have stayed at home
with her niece, but that she knew she should meet Sir Lionel at Miss
Todd's party. She was very anxious to learn whether Sir Lionel had
heard of this sad interruption to their harmony; anxious to hear what
Sir Lionel would say about it; anxious to concert measures with Sir
Lionel for repairing the breach--that is, if Sir Lionel should appear
to be cognizant that the breach existed. If she should find that
he was not cognizant, she would not tell him; at least she thought
she would not. Circumstances must of course govern her conduct to
a certain degree when the moment of meeting should arrive. And so
Miss Baker went to the party, certainly with a saddened heart, but
comforted in some degree by the assurance that she would meet Sir
Lionel. "Dear Sir Lionel, what a thing it is to have a friend," she
said to herself as she stepped into the fly. Yes, indeed, the best
thing in the world--the very best. But, dear Miss Baker, it is of all
things the most difficult to acquire--and especially difficult for
both ladies and gentlemen after forty years of age.

In the meantime, Sir Lionel had been calling on Miss Todd--had heard
a good deal about Miss Todd; and was strong at heart, as a man is
strong who has two good strings to his bow.

CHAPTER VII.

MISS TODD'S CARD-PARTY.

Yes. The great Miss Todd had arrived at Littlebath, and had already
been talked about not a little. Being a maiden lady, with no family
but her one own maid, she lived in lodgings of course. People at
Littlebath, indeed, are much given to lodgings. They are mostly a
come-and-go class of beings, to whom the possession of furniture and
the responsibilities of householding would be burdensome. But then
Miss Todd's lodgings were in the Paragon, and all the world knows how
much it costs to secure eligible rooms in the Paragon: two spacious
sitting-rooms, for instance, a bedroom, and a closet for one's own
maid. And Miss Todd had done this in the very best corner of the
Parag