nd his moustache. That's what
will happen to you one of these days, Lilias, when you go north, `on
view,' to Ned's people."

Lilias rolled her eyes, and affected to tear her hair in despair.

"Oh, don't! I pray you, don't! I shall die with nervousness. Poor
little me! His parents are reserved and undemonstrative, like most
North-country people, he says, but are very tender-hearted at bottom.
That means, I suppose, that they would be stiff and polite all the time
I was there, and begin slowly to unbend just as I was coming away.
Frederica, the girl, goes in for higher education, and doesn't care a
bit about going about with other girls. I know they will be
disappointed with me. Ned is so silly, and he is sure to tell them."--
She stopped, sweetly simpering, and the hearers had little difficulty in
guessing what it was that Ned would tell his people. He would say that
his _fiancee_ was the loveliest girl in the world; that she had hair
like spun gold, a complexion of milk and roses, and eyes soft and dewy
as a violet. Then Lilias would arrive in person, and his people would
think that he had not said half enough. Each of the three hearers had a
vision of Lilias advancing to meet the new relatives with lifted eyes,
and a smile that would melt a heart of stone; each one saw in
imagination the sudden thaw on the watching faces, and beheld Lilias
installed forthwith as the pride and darling of the household. They
smiled at one another in furtive amusement, but discreetly avoided
putting their thoughts into words, for Lilias fished so transparently
for compliments, that it had become an unspoken law never on any
condition to encourage her by giving the desired assurance.

Agatha turned aside to hide her amusement, and, the next moment, gave a
jump of astonishment.

"Keep still! Don't move! For your lives don't look out of the window!
Sit where you are, and go on talking. My dears, he is watching us! The
Vanburgh! I distinctly saw him lean forward and stare across. He is in
the room directly opposite, and he dodged back the moment I looked.
Fancy his being as much interested in us as we are in him! How
exciting!"

"We must look very ridiculous, sitting here in a row, chattering and
waving our hands as if we were mad. I don't wonder he stared, but I do
want to stare back. Let us take it in turns to peep beneath our
eyelashes, while the others go on talking," suggested Elsie; and the
proposal was carried