Mrs. De
Vere Hopkins, and Mrs. Burnett's boy was making a noise. Colonel Ormonde
said he was just like a little fellow he had seen nearly run over that
morning. I am sure Tom Burnett is not half as handsome as my Cecil."

"I should not have been run over if auntie had left me alone."

"Go and get mother's tea, and you, Charlie, fetch her some nice bread
and butter," said Katherine, who, though six or seven years her
sister-in-law's junior, looked at first sight older. "There _was_ an
elderly gentleman such as you describe, talking with the young man who
rescued Cecil, and he was very polite and interested in Cecil, who broke
away from me, though he had promised to stay by my side."

"Promised," repeated Mrs. Frederic, lightly, and carefully dusting her
bonnet with her handkerchief. "What can you expect from a child's
promise? But poor Cecil rarely does right in your eyes."

"Nonsense, Ada!"

"Not at all. I am very observant. But tell me, did Colonel Ormonde take
much notice of Cecil?"

"I do not know. I was too much frightened to see anything but the dear
child himself."

Mrs. Frederic did not reply for a moment; she seemed to be thinking
deeply. "Where did you get those flowers--those you bought on Saturday
for sixpence?"

"Oh! at the little florist's on Queen's Road. It was late in the
evening, you know, or they would not have been so cheap."

"I should like some to-morrow to make the drawing-room look pretty, if
possible, for Colonel Ormonde said he would call. He wishes to see some
of my Otocammed photographs. Heigho! it is a miserable place to receive
any one in."

"Well, you see, it must do."

"Really, Katherine, you are very unsympathetic. If you have a fault,
dear, it is selfishness. You don't mind my saying so?"

"Oh, not at all. I am thankful for the 'if.'"

"Where is your mother?"

"Lying down. She is tired, and has a horrid headache."

"I'm sure I don't wonder at it, toiling from morning till night for
those wretched papers. I was telling Mrs. Burnett to-day that my
mother-in-law was an authoress, but when I mentioned that she wrote for
_The Family Friend_ and _The Cheerful Visitor_, Lady Everton, who writes
in _The Court Journal_ and various grand things of that kind, said they
were quite low publications, and never got higher than the servants'
hall."

"You need not have gone into particulars, Ada. Whether my mother writes
well or ill, the pressure on her is too great to allow of her