his morning she could see the humour of the situation, and she chuckled
softly to herself as she walked homeward, rehearsing words of thanks
that would be at once cordial and truthful. "Just what I wanted," was
plainly out of the question; "So useful" was also ruled out, but she
could honestly admire the workmanship of the cloth, and enlarge on the
care with which it should be preserved! It was an easy task to satisfy
a correspondent who was eager to interpret words into the meaning most
agreeable to herself!

Claire entered the house prepared to devote herself to writing letters
to absent friends, but the excitements of the day were not yet over, for
the little maid met her on the threshold with the exciting intelligence
that a gentleman was in the parlour waiting to see her.

The feuilleton made an exciting leap forward, as Lizzie watched the
blood rush into the "first floor's" cheeks, and ebb away suddenly,
leaving her white and tense. "Struck all of a heap, like! I shouldn't
have thought meself as she'd look at him! Queer thing, love!"
soliloquised Lizzie, as she clumped down the kitchen stairs, and
returned to her superintendence of Sunday's "jint."

The "first floor" meanwhile stood motionless in the oil-clothed hall,
struggling to regain self-possession before turning the handle of the
door. A gentleman waiting to see her! Who could the gentleman be? But
at the bottom of her heart Claire believed the question to be
superfluous, for there was only one "gentleman" who could possibly come.
Captain Fanshawe had found out her address, and it was Christmas-time,
when a visitor was justified in counting on a hospitable reception. At
Christmas-time it would be churlish for a hostess to deny a welcome.
Every pulse in Claire's body was throbbing with anticipation as she
flung open that door.

The visitor was standing with his back towards her, bending low to
examine a photograph on the mantelpiece. At the sound of her entrance
he straightened himself and wheeled round, and at the sight of his face
Claire's heart dropped heavy as lead. They stood for a moment staring
in a mutual surprise, the girl's face blank with disappointment, the
man's brightening with interest.

He was a tall, thickly-set man, trim and smart in his attire, yet with a
coarseness of feature which aroused Claire's instant antagonism.
Compared with the face she had expected to see, the florid good looks
which confronted her were positively