ncy kissed her cheek.

That night Mrs. Damerel was feverish, and the next day she kept her
bed. The servant who waited upon her had to endure a good many sharp
reproofs; trouble did not sweeten this lady's temper, yet she never lost
sight of self-respect, and even proved herself capable of acknowledging
that she was in the wrong. Mrs. Damerel possessed the elements of
civilisation.

This illness tried her patience in no slight degree. Something she had
wished to do, something of high moment, was vexatiously postponed. A
whole week went by before she could safely leave the house, and even
then her mirror counselled a new delay. But on the third day of the new
year she made a careful toilette, and sent for a cab,--the brougham she
had been wont to hire being now beyond her means.

She drove to Farringdon Street, and climbed to the office of Mr
Luckworth Crewe. Her knowledge of Crewe's habits enabled her to choose
the fitting hour for this call; he had lunched, and was smoking a cigar.

'How delightful to see you here!' he exclaimed. 'But why did you trouble
to come? If you had written, or telegraphed, I would have saved you the
journey. I haven't even a chair that's fit for you to sit down on.'

'What nonsense! It's a most comfortable little room. Haven't you
improved it since I called?'

'I shall have to look out for a bigger place. I'm outgrowing this.'

'Are you really? That's excellent news. Ah, but what sad things have
been happening!'

'It's a bad business,' Crewe answered, shaking his head.

'I thought I should have heard from you about it.'

The reason of his silence she perfectly understood. Since Horace's
engagement, there had been a marked change in her demeanour towards the
man of business; she had answered his one or two letters with such
cold formality, and, on the one occasion of his venturing to call, had
received him with so marked a reserve, that Crewe, as he expressed it
to himself, 'got his back up.' His ideas of chivalrous devotion were
anything but complex; he could not bend before a divinity who snubbed
him; if the once gracious lady chose to avert her countenance, he would
let her know that it didn't matter much to him after all. Moreover,
Mrs. Damerel's behaviour was too suggestive; he could hardly be wrong
in explaining it by the fact that her nephew, about to be enriched by
marriage, might henceforth be depended upon for all the assistance she
needed. This, in the Americanism which ca