she had given me up."

"Where 'ave you been, and what's it all about?" demanded Mrs. Tipping.

"At present," said Flower, with an appearance of great firmness, "I
can't tell you. I shall tell Matilda the day after we're married--if
she'll still trust me and marry me--and you shall all know as soon as we
think it's safe."

"You needn't say another word, mar," said Miss Tipping, warningly.

"I'm sure," said the elder lady, bridling. "Perhaps your uncle would
like to try and reason with you."

Mr. Porson smiled in a sickly fashion, and cleared his throat.

"You see, my dear--" he began.

"Your tie's all shifted to one side," said his niece, sternly, "and the
stud's out of your buttonhole. I wish you'd be a little tidier when you
come here, uncle; it looks bad for the house."

"I came away in a hurry to oblige you," said Mr. Porson. "I don't think
this is a time to talk about button-holes."

"I thought you were going to say something," retorted Miss Tipping,
scathingly, "and you might as well talk about that as anything else."

"It ain't right," said Mrs. Tipping, breaking in, "that you should marry
a man you don't know anything about; that's what I mean. That's only
reasonable, I think."

"It's quite fair," said Flower, trying hard to speak reluctantly. "Of
course, if Matilda wishes, I'm quite prepared to go away now. I don't
wish her to tie herself up to a man who at present, at any rate, has to
go about wrapped in a mystery."

"All the same," said Mrs. Tipping, with a gleam in her eyes, "I'm not
going to have anybody playing fast and loose with my daughter. She's got
your ring on her finger. You're engaged to be married to her, and you
mustn't break it off by running away or anything of that kind. If she
likes to break it off, that's a different matter."

"I'm not going to break it off," said Miss Tipping, fiercely; "I've made
all the arrangements in my own mind. We shall get married as soon as we
can, and I shall put Dick in here as manager, and take a nice little inn
down in the country somewhere."

"Mark my words," said Mrs. Tipping, solemnly, "you'll lose him again."

"If I lose him again," said Miss Tipping, dramatically, "if he's
spirited away by these people, or anything happens to him, Dick won't be
manager here. Uncle Porson will have as much drink and as many cigars as
he pays for, and Charlie will find another berth."

"Nobody shall hurt a hair of his head," said Mr. Tipping, with
inimitable