of an
evening there is no need for you to turn hermit.'

'It is a character I prefer. All old bachelors develop this sort of
tendency to isolate themselves at times from their fellow-creatures. To
be sure, I am naturally gregarious; but, then, I hate to spoil sport.
"Do as you would be done by"--that is the Burnett motto. So, by your
favour, I intend Blake to have his own way.'

'Oh, how silly you must think us!' she returned impatiently. 'I wish you
would not be so self-opinionative, Michael; for you are wrong--quite
wrong. I should be far happier if you would make one of us, as you do on
other evenings.'

'And this is the _role_ you have selected for me,' replied Michael
mournfully: 'to play gooseberry in my old age, and get myself hated for
my pains. No, my dear child; listen to the words of wisdom: leave Mentor
to enjoy a surreptitious nap in his arm-chair, and be content with your
Blake audience.' And, in spite of all her coaxing and argument, she
could not induce him to promise that he would mend his ways.

'You are incorrigible!' she said, as she bade him good-night. 'After
all, Cyril gives me my own way far more than you do.'

But Michael seemed quite impervious to this reproach: the smile was
still on his face as she left him; but as the door closed his elbow
dropped heavily on the mantelpiece, and a sombre look came into the keen
blue eyes.

'Shall I have to give it up and go away?' he said to himself. 'Life is
not worth living at this price. Oh, my darling! my innocent darling! why
do you not leave me in peace? why do you tempt me with your sweet looks
and words to be false to my own sense of honour? But I will not yield--I
dare not, for all our sakes. If she will not let me take my own way, I
must just throw it all up and go abroad. God bless her! I know she means
what she says, and Mike is Mike still.' And then he groaned, and his
head dropped on his arms, and the tide of desolation swept over him. He
was still young--in the prime of life--and yet what good was his life to
him?

Audrey was a healthy-minded young person; she was not given to
introspection. She never took herself to pieces, in a morbid way, to
examine the inner workings of her own mind, after the manner of some
folk, who regulate themselves in a bungling fashion, and wind
themselves up afresh daily; and who would even time their own
heart-beats if it were possible.

Audrey was not one of these scrupulous self-critics. She would hav