, and had tried to undo the
mischief which they had wrought. That was generous of her, but Hope
blushed with a discomfited air as she said:

"I thought I pretended so beautifully! I thought no one could guess.
There is something else I want to explain. That evening last winter
when you wanted to see me home--it was not my fault that I disappeared
before you came back. Mrs Welsby asked me to take charge of a little
girl, and sent me off in a cab."

"Humph!" exclaimed Mrs Welsby's brother dryly. "What a comfort it would
be if people attended to their own business in this world! And were you
sorry, Hope? Were you disappointed?"

"I cried," said Hope simply; and once again Ralph Merrilies looked round
at the other occupants of the stalls and breathed a wish that they were
at any other part of the world than just that inhabited by Hope and
himself.

At the conclusion of the interval Avice came back to her seat, and
looking shyly around, found the answer to her question in two flushed,
radiant faces.

"I'm so glad, Hope!" she whispered, pressing her cousin's hand beneath
the shelter of that useful programme. "It is just what I wanted. I
helped you a little, didn't I? I asked him on purpose."

"I shall love you for it all my life," said Hope shyly.

"So shall I," said Ralph; "but--why didn't you do it sooner?"

Two hours later Hope ascended the stairs leading to the little flat,
having dismissed an unwilling lover who had been anxious to introduce
himself to his future sisters-in-law and fix the date of his wedding
without a moment's delay. She tried hard to control her features as she
entered the dining-room, and to look less ridiculously happy, but it was
of no avail. The girls gaped at her in astonishment as she stood
blushing and smiling before them, and Madge cried severely:

"What is the matter! You look mightily pleased with yourself, my dear.
What mischief have _you_ been up to this afternoon?"

"Please," said Hope humbly, "I've been getting engaged!" and the scene
which followed approached delirium in its excitement.

"And to think that I did not even know his name!" Philippa exclaimed
when a hundred questions had been asked and answered, and Hope had been
kissed and hugged to her heart's content. "You _were_ quiet about it!
How did you manage to get along without some one to comfort you all
these long months?"

"Theo knew," said Hope; and at that a little frown showed itself on
Philippa'