n, very happy and very dirty. I dare not have him
in--he always climbs up and hangs about me, for I have my best dress
on!"--the last words in large capitals.

"A deuced becoming dress too; but it's not so fine as what you had on
yesterday."

"No, of Course not; there are degrees of best dress. Yesterday's was my
_very_ best go-to-luncheon dress, and must last me a whole year."

"A year! By Jove! And you always look well dressed! You are a wonderful
woman! Now I must be off. Mrs. Burnett says she will send the carriage
for you on Thursday. We drive down to Twickenham."

"Oh, thank you, Colonel Ormonde! I am sure I am indebted to you for that
lift," said Mrs. Frederic, while she thought, "He might have driven me
down himself."

"_Au revoir_, then. Always hard to tear myself away from such a charming
little witch as you are."

Ormonde kissed her hand and departed.

"Jolly, plucky little woman," he thought, as he walked toward the
Bayswater Road, looking for a hansom. "Just the sort to save a man
trouble, and get full value out of a sovereign." He continued to muse on
the wonderful discovery he had made of a woman perfectly planned,
according to man's ideal--sweet, yielding, tenderly sympathetic, willing
and capable to ward off all annoyances from her master, full of feeling
for _his_ troubles, and not to be moved by her own to sad looks,
unbecoming tears, or downcast spirits--all softness to him, all
bristling sharpness to the rest of the world. "Such a woman would answer
my purpose as well as a woman with money, and she is an uncommonly
tempting morsel. But then those infernal boys! I am not going to provide
for another fellow's brats, and they can't have more than sixty pounds
between them from the fund! No; I must not make an ass of myself, even
for a pretty, clever woman, who has rather a hankering for myself, or I
am much mistaken. That sister-in-law of hers is the making of an
uncommon fine woman. There's a dash of a tragedy queen about her, but it
will be good fun to play her against the widow."

And the widow, as she rang for the house-maid to remove the tea-things,
indulged in a few speculations on her side. "He was evidently
disappointed with Katherine. I am not surprised. She is looking ill, and
she has _such_ ungracious manners! Of course she will come to this
Richmond party when I ask her, and I must ask her. Ormonde is a good
deal smitten with me, but he'll not lose his head. It is an awful thing
t