erous
relatives. She had misgivings about the _accolade_ he might receive from
Mrs. Amphlett Starfax, and also about the soul-communion which her
sister Lilian, who had a sensitive nature, demanded as the price of
recognition in public a second time of all persons introduced to her
notice.

Mr. Pellew's description of the Hon. Mrs. Corlett had impressed her with
the necessity of being ready to stand at bay when the presentation came
off.

"Dishy will look at you along the top of her nose, with her chin in the
air," said he. "But you mustn't be alarmed at that. She only does it
because her glasses--we're all short-sighted--slip off her nose at
ordinary levels. And when you come to think of it, how can she hold them
on with her fingers when she looks at you. Like taking interest in a
specimen!"

"I am a little alarmed at your sister Boadicea, Percy, for all that,"
said Miss Dickenson, and changed the conversation. This was only a day
or two after the Sapps Court accident, and the phase of not being
formally engaged had begun lasting as long as possible, being found
satisfactory. So old Mrs. Prichard was a natural topic to change to.
"Isn't it funny, this whim of Gwen's, about the old lady you carried
upstairs?"

"What whim of Gwen's?"

"Oh, don't you know. Of course you don't! Gwen's fallen in love with
her, and means to take her to the Towers with her when she goes back."

"Very nice for the old girl. What's she doing that for?"

"It's an idea of hers. However, there is some reason in it. The old
lady's apartments must be dry before she goes back to them, and that may
be weeks."

"Why can't she stop where she is?"

"All by herself? At least, only the cook! When Miss Grahame goes to
Devonshire, Maggie goes with her, to lady's-maid her."

"I thought we were going to be pastoral, and only spend three hundred a
year on housekeeping."

"So we are--how absurdly you do put things, Percy!--when we make a fair
start. But just till we begin in earnest, there's no need for such
strictness. Anyhow, if Maggie doesn't go to Devonshire, she'll go back
to her parents at Invercandlish. So the old lady can't stop. And Gwen
will go back to the Towers, of course. I don't the least believe they'll
hold out six months, those two.... What little ducks Kinkajous are! Give
me a biscuit.... No--one of the soft ones!"

For, you see, they were at the Zoological Gardens. They had felt that
these Gardens, besides being near at hand,