the wife of that great
man!"

"She is four inches taller than I am," I snapped. "And if he was as big
as a gum-tree, he would he a man all the same, and just as soft on a
pretty face as all the rest of them."

I bathed, dressed, arranged my hair, got something ready for tea, and
prepared a room for our visitor. For this I collected from all parts of
the house--a mat from one room, a toilet-set from another, and so on--till
I had quite an elaborately furnished chamber ready for my one-time lover.

They returned at dusk, Rory again seated on Harold's shoulder, and two of
the little boys clinging around him.

As I conducted him to his room I was in a different humour from that of
the sweep-like object who had met him during the afternoon. I laughed to
myself, for, as on a former occasion during our acquaintance, I felt I
was master of the situation.

"I say, Syb, don't treat a fellow as though he was altogether a stranger,"
he said diffidently, leaning against the door-post.

Our hands met in a cordial grasp as I said, "I'm awfully glad to see you,
Hal; but, but--"

"But what?"

I didn't feel over delighted to be caught in such a stew this afternoon."

"Nonsense! It only reminded me of the first time we met," he said with a
twinkle in his eye. "That's always the way with you girls. You can't be
civil to a man unless you're dressed up fit to stun him, as though you
couldn't make fool enough of him without the aid of clothes at all."

"You'd better shut up," I said over my shoulder as I departed, 1dor you
will be saying something better left unsaid, like at our first meeting.
Do you remember?"

"Do I not? Great Scot, it's just like old times to have you giving me
impudence over your shoulder like that!" he replied merrily.

"Like, yet unlike," I retorted with a sigh.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Once Upon a Time, when the days were long and hot

Next day was Sunday--a blazing one it was too. I proposed that in the
afternoon some of us should go to church. Father sat upon the idea as a
mad one. Walk two miles in such heat for nothing! as walk we would he
compelled to do, horseflesh being too precious in such a drought to
fritter it away in idle jaunts. Surprising to say, however, Harold, who
never walked anywhere when he could get any sort of a horse, uttered a
wish to go. Accordingly, when the midday dinner was over, he, Stanley,
and I set out. Going to church was quite the event of the week to the