; only----"

"Yes, just so. It was all I could do to refuse the poor dear fellow, he
pressed me so hard; but for the first (and now I shall make it the
last) time in my life, I was firm. I'm sure I wish I hadn't been. I
earned both your displeasure and his."

"Not mine, dearest."

"Besides, another motive for my determination was this: both he and I
doubted if you would receive him until the four months were verily
up,--you are such a Roman matron in the way of sternness."

"My sternness, as you call it, is a thing of the past. Yes, I will see
him whenever he may choose to come."

"Which will be in about two hours precisely; that is, the moment he
sees me and learns his fate. I told him to call again about one
o'clock, when I supposed I should have news for him. It is almost that
now." With a hasty glance at her watch. "I must fly. But first, give me
a line for him, Molly, to convince him of your fallibility."

"Have you heard anything of Sir Penthony?" asks Molly, when she has
scribbled a tiny note and given it to her friend.

"Yes; I hear he either is in London or was yesterday, or will be
to-morrow,--I am not clear which." With affected indifference. "I told
you he was sure to turn up again all right, like a bad halfpenny; so I
was not uneasy about him. I only hope he will reappear in better temper
than when he left."

"Now, confess you are delighted at the idea of so soon seeing him
again," says Molly, laughing.

"Well, I'm not in such radiant spirits as somebody I could mention."
Mischievously. "And as to confessing, I never do that. I should make a
bad Catholic. I should be in perpetual hot water with my spiritual
adviser. But if he comes back penitent, and shows himself less
exigeant, I shan't refuse his overtures of peace. Now, don't make me
keep your Teddy waiting any longer. He is shut up in my boudoir
enduring grinding torments all this time, and without a companion or
the chance of one, as I left word that I should be at home to no one
but him this morning. Good-bye, darling. Give my love to Letitia and
the wee scraps. And--these bonbons--I had almost forgotten them."

"Oh, by the bye, did you hear what Daisy said the other day
_apropos_ of your china?"

"No."

"When we had left your house and walked for some time in a silence most
unusual where _she_ is, she said, in her small, solemn way,
'Molly, why does Lady Stafford have her kitchen in her drawing-room?'
Now, was it not a capital bit of