g back to your father
because Sir Robert trod on Mrs. P.'s new black silk and tore it half off
her--tore it awfully, you know."

Daisy laughed gaily.

"You weren't there, were you, Mr. Norburn? Well, it was worth all the
money only to see old Mrs. Grim eat ices--you remember, Miss Medland?
She bolted three while Sir John was proposing the Queen's health, and
two more in the first verse of 'God save--'" and so Dick ran on.

Mr. Norburn consulted his watch.

"I'm afraid I must go," he said. "I'm due at the office."

"Oh," exclaimed Daisy penitently, "I forgot. But can't I drive you
back?"

"I couldn't trouble you to do that. You're not going back so soon?"

"But of course I can, Mr. Norburn; it's so far to walk."

"I don't mind the walk."

"Are you really quite sure? It is a beautiful morning to be out, isn't
it?"

Norburn took his leave, thinking, no doubt, of his official duties and
nothing else, and Daisy touched her pony.

"I must go on," she said.

"So must I," said Dick, "mustn't keep my horse standing any longer."

"Why not? He can't catch cold to-day."

"Oh, he'd take root and never go away--just as I do, when I stand near
you, you know."

It is not proposed to set out the rest of their conversation. Daisy
forgot Norburn's gloomy face, Dick forgot every face but Daisy's, and
the usual things were said and done. An appeal to the memory of any
reader will probably give a result accurate enough. Imagine yourself on
a pretty morning, in a pretty place, by a pretty girl, and let her be
kind and you not a numskull, and there's half-a-dozen pages saved.

It was, however, a little unfortunate that, at the last moment, when the
third good-bye was being said, Lady Eynesford should come whirling by in
her barouche.

"The deuce!" said Dick under his breath.

Lady Eynesford's features did not relax. She bowed to her brother-in-law
gravely and stiffly; her gaze appeared to travel far over the top of the
low pony-carriage which contained Daisy Medland. Dick flushed with
vexation. True, the Governor's wife did not yet know the Premier's
daughter, but she need not have insisted on the fact so ostentatiously.
Dick turned to his companion. She was laughing.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked, rather offended. A man seldom likes to
be thought to value the opinion of the women of his family, valuable as
it always is.

"You know very well," she answered. "Oh, I dare say I've got into
trouble too."

"I don't