n yours.'

'You don't look old,' laughed Mab, letting her hand lie in that of her
lover's.

'But I feel old--old enough to marry you, my dear. What is your next
objection?'

'Your father does not know that you love me.'

'My mother does; Lucy does; and with two women to persuade him, my dear,
kind old father will gladly consent to the match.'

'I have no money.'

'My dearest, neither have I. Two negatives make an affirmative, and
that affirmative is to be uttered by you when I ask if I may tell the
bishop that you are willing to become a soldier's wife.'

'Oh, George!' cried Mab, anxiously, 'it is a very serious matter. You
know how particular your father is about birth and family. My parents
are dead; I never knew them; for my father died before I was born, and
my mother followed him to the grave when I was a year old. If my dear
mother's sister had not taken charge of me and brought me up, I should
very likely have gone on the parish; for--as aunty says--my parents were
paupers.'

'My lovely pauper, what is all this to me? Here is your answer to all
the nonsense you have been talking,' and George, with the proverbial
boldness of a soldier, laid a fond kiss on the charming face so near to
his own.

'Oh, George!' began the scandalised Mab, for the fifth time at least,
and was about to reprove her audacious lover again, when Miss Whichello
bustled into the room, followed by the black shadow of the parson.
George and Mab sprang apart with alacrity, and each wondered, while
admiring the cathedral opposite, if Miss Whichello or Cargrim had heard
the sound of that stolen kiss. Apparently the dear, unsuspecting old
Jenny Wren had not, for she hopped up to the pair in her bird-like
fashion, and took George's arm.

'Come, good people,' she said briskly, 'luncheon is ready; and so are
your appetites, I've no doubt. Mr Cargrim, take in my niece.'

In five minutes the quartette were seated round a small table in Miss
Whichello's small dining-room. The apartment was filled with oak
furniture black with age and wondrously carved; the curtains and carpet
and cushions were of faded crimson rep, and as the gaily-striped
sun-blinds were down, the whole was enwrapped in a sober brown
atmosphere restful to the eye and cool to the skin. The oval table was
covered with a snow-white cloth, on which sparkled silver and crystal
round a Nankin porcelain bowl of blue and white filled with deep red
roses. The dinner-plates were of