sonal things the whole time. Of course, I like sensible
conversation; one feels humiliated if a man does nothing but frivol, but
there is a happy medium. When you are nineteen and looking your best,
you don't care to be treated as if you were a hundred and fifty, and a
fright at that. Will and I have always been good friends, and being
engaged as he is, I expect him to be perfectly frank and out-spoken.

I tried to be lively and keep the conversation going, but it was such an
effort that I grew tired, and I really think I am rather delicate for
once in my life, for what with the exertion and the depression, I felt
quite ill by the time dessert was on the table. All the ladies said how
pale I was in the drawing-room, and mother puckered her eyebrows when
she looked at me. Dear, sweet mother! It was horrid of me to be
pleased at anything which worried her, but when you have been of no
account, and all the attention has been lavished on someone else, it is
really rather soothing to have people think of you for a change.

Terese met me coming out of the dining-room, and said that Vere was well
enough to see Mr Dudley, so I took him upstairs as soon as he appeared.
Passing through the hall, I saw a letter addressed to me in Lorna's
handwriting, on the table, and carried it up with me to read while they
were talking. They wouldn't want me, and it would be a comfort to
remember that Lorna did. I was just in the mood to be a martyr, so when
I had seen Will seated beside the couch, and noticed that Vere had been
arrayed for the occasion in her prettiest wrap, with frilled cushion
covers to match, I went right off to the end of the room and sat down on
the most uncomfortable chair I could find. When one feels low it is
comical what a relief it is to punish oneself still further. When I
thought myself ill-used as a child, I used always to refuse tart and
cream, which I loved, and eat rice pudding, which I hated. The
uncomfortable chair was the rice pudding in this instance, but I soon
forgot all about it, and even about Vere and Will, in the excitement of
reading that letter.

"My own Maggie,--(on the second day after we met at school Lorna and I
decided to call each other `Maggie'--short for `magnetic attraction'--
but we only do it when we write, otherwise it excites curiosity, and
that is horrid in matters of the heart!)--My own Maggie,--It is ages
since I heard from you, darling. Why didn't you answer my