too much!' muttered Mr. Falkirk. 'Poor child! So
the old guardian is better than the young one, my dear?'

'It used to be supposed,' said the girl, dancing off out of
the room, 'that twice one is two. But I am inclined to think
that twice one is six!'--Which was all the satisfaction Mr.
Falkirk got.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

FRIENDLY TONGUES.

Yes, it was very hard for her; much harder than any one knew
but herself. The joke was too striking to be passed by, even
in the case of an ordinary person; but when it was Miss
Kennedy,--heiress, beauty, and queen of favour,--all tongues
took it up. She could go nowhere, wear nothing, do nothing,
without meeting that one subject face to face. Many things
brought it forward. Kitty Fisher of course had exasperation in
her heart; but there were other (supposably) gentle breasts
where even less lovely feelings, of shorter names, found
lodgment. Hazel was condoled with, laughed at, twitted, by
turns; until even Mr. Rollo's name in the distance made her
shrink. Mrs. Coles had not (apparently) made known the
conditions upon which he had assumed his office; but Wych
Hazel was in daily terror lest she would; and as people often
graze the truth which yet they do not know, so hardest of all
to bear just now, were Kitty Fisher's two new names for her:
'the Duchess,' and 'Your Grace.' Most people indeed did not
know their point, ignorant of Prim's pet name for Mr. Rollo;
but Wych Hazel needed no telling; and her face was sometimes a
thing to see.

That was the worst of it!--it _was_ a thing to see. And so, while
now and then one of her special gentlemen friends would
interpose, and draw the strokes upon himself; yet her
delicate, womanly fencing was so pretty, so novel; it was such
sport to watch the little hands turn off and parry Kitty
Fisher's rude thrusts; that few masculine hearts were
unselfish enough to forego it. There were actual wagers out as
to how long 'the Duchess' could carry it on without losing her
temper or clipping the truth; and how soon 'the Fisher' would
get tired and give it up. And as for the tokens in Miss
Kennedy's face sometimes, who that had once seen them did not
watch to see them again? Other people began to take up the new
titles; and Mme. Lasalle made courtesies to 'the Duchess,' and
Stuart Nightingale and Mr. May bowed low before 'her Grace,'
entreating her hand for the quadrille or the promenade.

'And some night he will be standing by and hear them sa