ent of the giant, who had been so engaged
in talking and listening, as not to have perceived that something
interesting was about to take place. The sight of the freely flowing
champagne gave Graeme a shock, but a glance at Harry reassured her.
There was no danger for him to-night. Yes, they had all enjoyed it,
they acknowledged, as they lingered over the fire after their return.

"But, Arthur," said Graeme, "I was disappointed in Miss Grove. She is
pretty, certainly, but there is something wanting--in expression I mean.
She looks good tempered, but not intellectual."

"Intellectual!" repeated Arthur. "No. One would hardly make use of
that word in describing her. But she is almost the prettiest little
thing I ever saw, I think."

"And she certainly is the silliest little thing I ever saw," said Harry.
"Rosie, if I thought you capable of talking such stuff, as I heard from
her pretty lips to-night, _I_ would--"

Arthur laughed; less, it seemed, at what Harry had said, than at what it
recalled.

"She is not likely to astonish the world by her wisdom, I should think,"
said he, as he rose to go up-stairs. "Nor Rosie either, for that
matter," he added, laughing, and looking back.

"None of us are giving great proof of wisdom just now, I think," said
Graeme. "Come, Rosie, Nelly will lose patience if breakfast is kept
waiting. Good-night, Harry. Don't sit long."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

Whether Nelly lost her patience next morning or not, history does not
record; but it is a fact that breakfast was late, and late as it was,
Rosie did not make her appearance at it. Graeme had still a very
pleasant remembrance of the evening; but it was not altogether unmixed.
The late breakfast, the disarrangement of household matters, Rosie's
lassitude, and her own disinclination to engage in any serious
occupation, was some drawback to the remembrance of her enjoyment. All
were more or less out of sorts, some from one cause, some from another.

This did not last long, however. The drawback was forgotten, the
pleasure was remembered, so that when a day or two afterward, a note
came from Mrs Gridley, begging the presence of the brothers and sisters
at a small party at her house, nothing was said about refusing. Mrs
Gridley had promised some friends from Toronto, a treat of Scottish
music, and she would be inconsolable should they disappoint her. But
the consolation of Mrs Gridley was not the chief reason of the
acce