r, kind, preoccupied Martha who could not be expected to understand
their higher flights. She had suffered beneath this treatment, and was
delighted that these fledglings should now see in what estimation she
was held by a scholar of repute.

"You are the _kindest_ man I ever met. There is no one else among our
friends who would jeopardise his digestion by eating tough steak day
after day in the hope of doing us a service," she cried, deftly evading
a direct answer, which, if honest, must needs have been in the
affirmative. Theo's hand advanced cautiously and gave a meaning
pressure to Madge's elbow. Madge stared into space, with wooden
stolidity of feature. Hope looked wistfully from Philippa to the
hermit, from the Hermit back to Philippa once more.

Then suddenly came the sound of the electric bell, followed by a silence
of expectation. It might portend a letter or a telegram. It might be
even Barney himself!

Mary opened the door, and some one entered the tiny passage to an
accompaniment of gasps and groans and rustlings of silken skirts; the
air became laden with scent, and a second after Minnie Caldecott
staggered into the room and sank down on the nearest chair.

"Where is your lift? You horrible girls, what do you mean by not having
a lift? I'm _dead_!" she announced tragically, fanning herself with the
ends of a chiffon boa, and puffing and blowing in quite an alarming
fashion, until, suddenly catching sight of the Hermit at the other end
of the room, she sat up straight in her chair and recovered her breath
with remarkable celerity.

The Charrington girls had never before seen the fair Minnie in the
presence of a member of the opposite sex, and the scene which followed
filled them with delighted amusement. The lady elaborately prepared
herself for the fray, set her hat at a more becoming angle, pulled out
the little curls under the veil, and while ostensibly addressing herself
to her friends, sent fascinating glances across the room with her big
blue eyes. The man hunched his shoulders, screwed up his brows, and
looked helplessly miserable and ill at ease. He would have given the
world to escape, but the buxom figure barred the way, and he lacked the
courage to pass by. There was nothing for it but to sit still until she
chose to depart.

"Well, I'm thankful I have found you at home after that climb. You must
think twice before you go out, when you live in a bird's nest like this.
I nearly