d ices, the bonbons and surprises.
And I never have to worry because before long I must go home!"

"No, not like that; your similes are always too self-deprecatory. You
seem to me more and more like a young queen who has just come to the
throne, but who is shy about picking up her sceptre. She prefers
long-stemmed roses, and every now and then she catches up her train and
runs down from her dais and out-of-doors, until some shocked courtier
rushes after her and brings her back!"

"Now you _are_ laughing at me!" Georgiana wheeled to confront her
husband, who, stretched lazily in his chair, after a long day at the
side of a great biologist in his laboratory, was relaxing muscles and
nerves at the same time.

He put out one arm toward her, and she came slowly to his side. "Not a
bit. It just delights me to see you your natural self in spite of all
that London can do to you. Allison tells me that it is the most
interesting thing in the world to watch you decide whether you will buy
a new hat or a new book. She declares that milliners admire you and seem
anxious to please you, but that when you get into a bookshop you have
every old bookseller climbing about his ladders to bring down his
choicest treasures for you."

Georgiana laughed. "I can't get used to buying hats at all--not to
mention silk stockings--and as for buying hats and books and silk
stockings on the same day, it's simply past belief that I can do it. Why
do you fill my purse so full? I'm afraid I'm losing all the benefit of
my long training in frugality."

"I hope so. I can never forget last winter watching you dissemble your
good healthy appetite and pretend you didn't want beefsteak, while you
fed your father and me on a juicy tenderloin. Brave little housekeeper
on nothing a month!"

She looked at him quickly. "I never dreamed you noticed. And besides, I
really didn't want----"

"Take care! The table was the only place where I ever caught you playing
a part. I forgave you, only--how I did long to divide with you! Now all
the rest of my life I can divide, equal shares, with you--my Georgiana!"

The weeks flew by, bringing never-ending interest. After London came
Edinburgh, city of stately beauty, where among Scottish friends of the
Craigs Georgiana learned whence her husband's family had sprung, and
their noble origin and history.

Then the vacation was at an end "for this time," as Craig said, and the
little party turned their faces homeward.