hoking mist; and you can see that if there were no ladies present he
would let off a few crackers--fog-signals, as it were--just to bring
himself up a bit, and let people know where he was. Then he will go
on again, talking away until you fancy yourself in a tunnel, with a
throbbing noise in your ears and all the daylight shut out, and you
perhaps getting to wish that on the whole you were dead."

"Cecilia!"

"I beg your pardon, mamma," said the younger lady with a quiet smile
"you look so surprised that Mr. Ingram will give me credit for not
often erring in that way. You look as though a hare had turned and
attacked you."

"That would give most people a fright," said Ingram with a laugh. He
was rapidly forgetting the object of his mission. The almost childish
softness of voice of this girl, and the perfect composure with which
she uttered little sayings that showed considerable sharpness of
observation and a keen enjoyment of the grotesque, had an odd sort
of fascination for him. He totally forgot that Lavender had been
fascinated by it too. If he had been reminded of the fact at
this moment he would have said that the _boy_ had, as usual, got
sentimental about a pretty pair of big gray eyes and a fine profile,
while he, Ingram, was possessed by nothing but a purely intellectual
admiration of certain fine qualities of wit, sincerity of speech and
womanly shrewdness.

Luncheon, indeed, was over before any mention was made of the
Lavenders; and when they returned to that subject it appeared to
Ingram that their relations had in the mean time got to be very
friendly, and that they were really discussing this matter as if they
formed a little family conclave.

"I have told Mr. Ingram, mamma," Mrs. Lorraine said, "that so far as I
am concerned I will do whatever he thinks I ought to do. Mr. Lavender
has been a friend of ours for some time, and of course he cannot
be treated with rudeness or incivility; but if we are wounding the
feelings of any one by asking him to come here--and he certainly
visited us pretty often--why, it would be easy to lessen the number of
his calls. Is that what we should do, Mr. Ingram? You would not have
us quarrel with him?"

"Especially," said Mrs. Kavanagh with a smile, "that there is no
certainty he will spend more of his time with his wife merely because
he spends less of it here. And yet I fancy he is a very good-natured
man."

"He _is_ very good-natured," said Ingram with decision.