er of men, the essence of intrepid resolution,
stand quaking outside a drawing-room door. The _debut_ of Robin, then, I
awaited with considerable interest. I expected on the whole to see him
tongue-tied, especially before Dolly and Dilly. On the other hand he
might be aggressively assertive.

He was neither. He proved to be that rarest of types--the man who has no
fear of his fellow-creatures, male or female, singly or in battalions.
Our sex is so accustomed to squaring its shoulders, pulling down its
waistcoat, and assuming an engaging expression as a preliminary to an
encounter with the fair, that the spectacle of a man who enters a
strange drawing-room and shakes hands quietly and naturally all round,
without twisting his features into an agreeable smile and mumbling
entirely inarticulate words of rapture, always arouses in me feelings of
envy and respect.

We found Kitty and the Twins picturesquely grouped upon the drawing-room
hearth-rug, waiting for the luncheon gong.

I introduced Robin to my wife, in the indistinct and throaty tones which
always obtrude themselves into an Englishman's utterance when he is
called upon to say something formal but graceful. Kitty greeted the
guest with a smile with which I am well acquainted (and which I can
guarantee from personal experience to be absolutely irresistible on
one's first experience of it), and welcomed him to the house very
prettily.

"You are very kind, Mrs Inglethwaite," said Robin, shaking hands. "But I
am not quite a stranger to you. Do you mind my face?"

Kitty turned scarlet.

"Mind your----? Not in the--I mean--I am sure we are de----" She
floundered hopelessly.

Robin laughed pleasantly.

"There is my Scots tongue running away with me already," he said. "I
should have asked rather if you _remembered_ my face."

This time Kitty ceased to look confused, but still retained a puzzled
frown.

"No," she said slowly; "I don't _think_----"

"No wonder!" said Robin. "We met once, in a railway carriage, six years
ago. Between Edinburgh and Perth--on a Saturday afternoon," he added
expressively.

Light broke in upon Kitty. "Of course!" she said. "Now I remember. That
dreadful journey! You were the gentleman who was so kind and helpful.
How nice and romantic meeting again! Adrian, you silly old creature, why
didn't you tell me? Now, Mr Fordyce, let me introduce you to my
sisters."

She wheeled him round and presented him to the Twins.

That pair of b