cind
your anti-flirtation resolutions."

"Up the river?" repeated Katherine, with a wistful look, and paused. "On
Thursday next? Thank you very much, but I'm engaged--quite particularly
engaged."

"Nonsense, Katie!" cried her sister-in-law. "Where in the world are you
going? You know you never have an engagement anywhere."

"Come, Miss Liddell, do not be cruel. We will have a very jolly day, and
I'll try and persuade your hero of yesterday to meet you."

"I should like to go very much, but I really cannot. I thank you for
thinking of me." She stood up, and, with a slight bow, said,
"Good-morning," leaving the room before the stout Colonel could reach
the door to open it.

"Phew! that was sharp, short, and decisive," said Ormonde.

"Yes, wasn't it? She is quite a character. Leave her to me if you wish
her to go. I will manage it."

"Yes, do. She is something fresh, though she is not so handsome as I
thought. I suspect there is a strong dash of the devil in her."

"I cannot say _I_ have seen much of it," said the young widow, frankly.
She was extremely shrewd in a small way, and had adopted an air of
candid good-nature as best suited to her style and complexion. "Handsome
or not, if you would like to have her at your party, I will try to
persuade her to come."

"Thanks. What a little brick you are!" said Ormonde, admiringly. "No
nonsense with you, or trying to keep a pretty girl out of it. I say,
Mrs. Liddell, it must be an awful life for you, shut up in this stuffy
suburban box?"

"Well, it is not cheerful; but I have no choice, so I just make the best
of it," she returned, with as bright a smile as she could muster. "No
use spoiling one's eyes or one's temper over the inevitable. Then I am
really fond of my mother-in-law, poor soul! She would spoil me if she
had the means; and Katherine--well, she isn't bad."

"By George! if you make your mother-in-law fond of you, you must be an
angel incarnate."

"An angel!" echoed the little lady. "That would never do. No, no; it is
because I am so desperately human I get on with them all."

"Delightfully human, you mean. No house could be dull with you in it.
There's nothing like pluck and good-humor in a woman."

"Well, Heaven knows I want both!"

"I am afraid I must be off," said the Colonel. "I am going to dine with
Eversley, and he has a villa at Rochampton--quite a journey, you know.
Where is the little chap that was nearly run over?"

"Playing in the garde