ferred to
receive a telegram of refusal rather than not to hear from him at all.

When these entertainments were over and the mother and daughter were
left alone, the daughter became far more thoroughly artificial than she
was when surrounded by her friends. There was no throwing off the mask;
on the contrary, it was fixed more firmly on, and Miss Luscombe gave
free vent to her sham passion for imitation comedy.

On this particular Thursday, as soon as Flora Luscombe had laughed her
last visitor archly to the door, she knelt by her mother's side, put her
arms round her, and said--

"Dear, dear Mummy, how sweet it is to be alone!"

Mrs. Luscombe shrank back a little. This pet name, only too appropriate,
always got a little on her nerves, but she felt bound to play up in an
amateurish sort of way to a certain extent.

"Hadn't you better go and take off that beautiful dress?" she said.
"You're not really dining out, are you?"

"No, dearest, I managed to get out of it, but alas! I've got to go to
the Reception--you know--that horrid Royal Institution of Water
Colours--afterwards. It isn't worth while to change again. Oh, how weary
one does get of the continual round! And then to-morrow!" She sighed.

"What is it to-morrow?"

"To-morrow! Don't talk of it! There's Mrs. Morris's At Home in Maida
Hill, and then right at the other end of London the Hyslop-Dunn's in
Victoria Grove. Oh, dear! And yet one feels one must be _seen_ at all
these places, darling, or else it's remarked at once."

"You live too much for the world," replied her mother, tidying up some
half-finished watercress sandwiches with a sharp knife. She wondered if,
thus repaired, they would do for next Thursday.

"You know, Mummy dear, that's the worst of our terrible profession. We
must keep before the public, or else we drop out and are forgotten. What
a sweet creature Valentia Wyburn is! I thought she was quite, quite
dear. And the husband and the cousin are darlings too. Of course they
wouldn't come; I couldn't get them to an afternoon."

She got up and looked in the glass.

"What a crowd there was to-day! Three people came up to the front door
at the same time. I think they enjoyed themselves, don't you? Though I
feel I can't pay every one proper attention when there's such a crush,
but I do my little best.... Mr. Simpson came up to me and told me I
looked quite wonderful. But he's a silly thing." She pouted and put her
head on one side. "Did I