ittle thing in white,' said Trevor. 'So pretty and
flowering! "Cherries ripe themselves do cry," a line in an old song,
that's what her face reminded me of. Who was she?'

'She came with Miss Martin, the penny novelist,' said Logan. 'She is
stopping with her. A country parson's daughter, come up to town to try
to live by typewriting.'

'She will be of no use to us,' said Merton. 'If ever a young woman
looked fancy-free it is that girl. What did you say her name is, Logan?'

'I did not say, but, though you won't believe it, her name is Miss
Blossom, Miss Florry Blossom. Her godfathers and godmothers must bear
the burden of her appropriate Christian name; the other, the surname, is
a coincidence--designed or not.'

'Well, she is not suitable,' said Merton sternly. 'Misplaced affections
she might distract, but then, after she had distracted them, she might
reciprocate them. As a conscientious manager I cannot recommend her to
clients.'

'But,' said Trevor, 'she may be useful for all that, as well as decidedly
ornamental. Merton, you'll want a typewriter for your business
correspondence, and Miss Blossom typewrites: it is her profession.'

'Well,' said Merton, 'I am not afraid. I do not care too much for "that
garden in her face," for your cherry-ripe sort of young person. If a
typewriter is necessary I can bear with her as well as another.'

'I admire your courage and resignation,' said Trevor, 'so now let us go
and take rooms for the Society.'

They found rooms, lordly rooms, which Trevor furnished in a stately
manner, hanging a selection of his mezzotints on the walls--ladies of old
years, after Romney, Reynolds, Hoppner, and the rest. A sober opulence
and comfort characterised the chambers; a well-selected set of books in a
Sheraton bookcase was intended to beguile the tedium of waiting clients.
The typewriter (Miss Blossom accepted the situation) occupied an inner
chamber, opening out of that which was to be sacred to consultations.

The firm traded under the title of Messrs. Gray and Graham. Their
advertisement--in all the newspapers--addressed itself 'To Parents,
Guardians, Children and others.' It set forth the sorrows and anxieties
which beset families in the matter of undesirable matrimonial engagements
and entanglements. The advertisers proposed, by a new method, to restore
domestic peace and confidence. 'No private inquiries will, in any case,
be made into the past of the parties conce