s on the
top of those books."

"Frank is in the drawing-room," observed Sheila mildly.

"He can wait," said the old woman sharply.

"Yes, but you cannot expect me to keep him waiting," with a smile
which did not conceal her very definite purpose.

"Then ring, and bid him come up. You will soon get rid of those absurd
sentiments."

Sheila rang the bell, and sent Mrs. Paterson down for Lavender, but
she did not betake herself to Marcus Antoninus. She waited a few
minutes, and then her husband made his appearance, whereupon she sat
down and left to him the agreeable duty of talking with this toothless
old heathen about funerals and lingering death.

"Well, Aunt Lavender, I am sorry to hear you have been ill, but I
suppose you are getting all right again, to judge by your looks."

"I am not nearly as ill as you expected."

"I wonder you did not say 'hoped,'" remarked Lavender carelessly.
"You are always attributing the most charitable feelings to your
fellow-creatures."

"Frank Lavender," said the old lady, who was a little pleased by this
bit of flattery, "if you came here to make yourself impertinent and
disagreeable, you can go down stairs again. Your wife and I get on
very well without you."

"I am glad to hear it," he said: "I suppose you have been telling her
what is the matter with you."

"I have not. I don't know. I have had a pain in the head and two fits,
and I dare say the next will carry me off. The doctors won't tell me
anything about it, so I suppose it is serious."

"Nonsense!" cried Lavender. "Serious! To look at you, one would say
you never had been ill in your life."

"Don't tell stories, Frank Lavender. I know I look like a corpse, but
I don't mind it, for I avoid the looking-glass and keep the spectacle
for my friends. I expect the next fit will kill me."

"I'll tell you what it is, Aunt Lavender: if you would only get up and
come with us for a drive in the Park, you would find there was nothing
of an invalid about you; and we should take you home to a quiet dinner
at Notting Hill, and Sheila would sing to you all the evening,
and to-morrow you would receive the doctors in state in your
drawing-rooms, and tell them you were going for a month to Malvern."

"Your husband has a fine imagination, my dear," said Mrs. Lavender to
Sheila. "It is a pity he puts it to no use. Now I shall let both of
you go. Three breathing in this room are too many for the cubic feet
of air it contains. Frank,