e will be glad to have you so near. _Why_
is she going home so _soon_, Stanor? I thought--"

"So did we all, but it's fallen through somehow. I met Carr in town
looking the picture of woe, but, naturally, he didn't vouchsafe any
explanation. Honor will probably unburden herself to you to-morrow."

"She will. If she doesn't I shall ask her," said Pixie calmly. "I'm
crossed in love myself, so I can understand. It's no use trying to
sympathise till you've had a taste of the trouble yourself. Has it ever
occurred to you to notice the mad ways most people set about
sympathising? Sticking needles all over you while they're trying to be
kind. Sympathising is an art, you know, and you have to adapt it to
each person. Some like a little and some like a lot, and some like
cheering up, and others want you to cry with them and make the worst of
everything, and then it's off their minds and they perk up. Bridgie and
I used to think sometimes of hiring ourselves out as professional
sympathisers, for there seems such a lack of people who can do it
properly."

"Suppose you give me a demonstration now! You haven't been too generous
in that respect, Pixie."

Pixie looked at him, her head on one side, her eyes very intent and
serious.

"You don't _need_ it," she said simply, and Stanor looked hurt and
discomfited, and cast about in his mind for a convincing retort which
should prove beyond doubt the pathos of his position, failed to find it,
and acknowledged unwillingly to himself that as a matter of fact he
_was_ very well satisfied with the way in which things were going.
Pixie was right--she usually _was_ right; it might, perhaps, be more
agreeable if on occasions she could be judiciously blind! He adopted
the pained and dignified air which experience had taught him was the
surest method of softening Pixie's heart, and in less than a minute she
was hanging on his arm and contradicting all her former statements.

Stanor was very much in love as he travelled back to town that day, and
the two years of waiting seemed unbearably long. Perhaps, if he got on
unusually well, the Runkle might be induced to shorten the probation.
He would sound him at the end of the first year.

The next day Honor Ward made a farewell visit to the Hall, and took
lunch with the family in the panelled dining-room, where she had joined
in many merry gatherings a few weeks before. Pixie saw the brown eyes
flash a quick glance at the place wh