apt to affect a
lady's mood as much by measure as by weight. A useless declaration like
a rare china teacup with a hole in it, has its ornamental value in
enlarging a collection.

No sooner had they entered the house than Mr. Julian's card was
discovered; and Joey informed them that he had come particularly to speak
with Ethelberta, quite forgetting that it was her evening for
tale-telling.

This was real delight, for between her excitements Ethelberta had been
seriously sick-hearted at the horrible possibility of his never calling
again. But alas! for Christopher. There being nothing like a dead
silence for getting one's off-hand sweetheart into a corner, there is
nothing like prematurely ending it for getting into that corner one's
self.

'Now won't I punish him for daring to stay away so long!' she exclaimed
as soon as she got upstairs. 'It is as bad to show constancy in your
manners as fickleness in your heart at such a time as this.'

'But I thought honesty was the best policy?' said Picotee.

'So it is, for the man's purpose. But don't you go believing in sayings,
Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who
use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not
ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.'

She sat down, and rapidly wrote a line to Mr. Julian:--

'EXONBURY CRESCENT.

'I return from Mayfair Hall to find you have called. You will, I
know, be good enough to forgive my saying what seems an unfriendly
thing, when I assure you that the circumstances of my peculiar
situation make it desirable, if not necessary. It is that I beg you
not to give me the pleasure of a visit from you for some little time,
for unhappily the frequency of your kind calls has been noticed; and I
am now in fear that we may be talked about--invidiously--to the injury
of us both. The town, or a section of it, has turned its bull's-eye
upon me with a brightness which I did not in the least anticipate; and
you will, I am sure, perceive how indispensable it is that I should be
circumspect.--Yours sincerely,

E. PETHERWIN.'

21. A STREET--NEIGH'S ROOMS--CHRISTOPHER'S ROOMS

As soon as Ethelberta had driven off from the Hall, Ladywell turned back
again; and, passing the front entrance, overtook his acquaintance Mr.
Neigh, who had been one of the last to emerge. The two were going in the
same direction, and they w