china-mania? I thought it very severe
on the times."

"It was cruel. I shall instantly send my plates and jugs, and that
delicious old Worcester tureen down-stairs to their proper place," says
Cecil, laughing. "There is no criticism so cutting as a child's."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

"Ask me no more; thy fate and mine are sealed.
I strove against the stream, and all in vain.
Let the great river take me to the main.
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;
Ask me no more."

--_The Princess._

Almost as Cecil steps into her carriage, Sir Penthony Stafford is
standing on her steps, holding sweet converse with her footman at her
own hall-door.

"Lady Stafford at home?" asks he of the brilliant but supercilious
personage who condescends to answer to his knock.

"No, sir." Being a new acquisition of Cecil's, he is blissfully
ignorant of Sir Penthony's name and status. "My lady is hout."

"When will she be home?" Feeling a good deal of surprise at her early
wanderings, and, in fact, not believing a word of it.

"My lady won't be at home all this morning, sir."

"Then I shall wait till the afternoon," says Sir Penthony, faintly
amused, although exasperated at what he has decided is a heinous lie.

"Lady Stafford gave strict horders that no one was to be admitted
before two," says flunkey, indignant at the stranger's persistence, who
has come into the hall and calmly divested himself of his overcoat.

"She will admit _me_, I don't doubt," says Sir Penthony, calmly.
"I am Sir Penthony Stafford."

"Oh, indeed! Sir Penthony, I beg your pardon. Of course, Sir Penthony,
if you wish to wait----"

Here Sir Penthony, who has slowly been mounting the stairs all this
time, with Chawles, much exercised in his mind, at his heels--(for
Cecil's commands are not to be disputed, and the situation is a good
one, and she has distinctly declared no one is to be received)--Sir
Penthony pauses on the landing and lays his hand on the boudoir door.

"Not there, Sir Penthony," says the man, interposing hurriedly, and
throwing open the drawing-room door, which is next to it. "If you will
wait here I don't think my lady will be long, as she said she should be
'ome at one to keep an appointment."

"That will do." Sternly. "Go!--I dare say," thinks Stafford, angrily,
as the drawing-room door is closed on him, "if I make a point of it,
she will dismiss that fellow. Insolent and noisy as a parrot. A
well-bred footm