think, dear," she said primly, "it _would_ be wise. Esmeralda has
said so many a time, but I took no notice. I never did take any notice
of Esmeralda, but she was right this time, it appears, and I was wrong.
Imagine it! Pixie began bemoaning that she was not pretty, and it was
not herself she was grieving for, or you, or _Me_!"--Bridgie's voice
sounded a crescendo of amazement over that last pronoun--"but whom do
you suppose? You'll never guess! Her future _lovers_!"

It was just another instance of the provokingness of man that at this
horrible disclosure Dick threw himself back in his chair in a peal of
laughter; he laughed and laughed till the tears stood in his eyes, and
Bridgie, despite herself, joined in the chorus. The juxtaposition of
Pixie and lovers had proved just as startling to him as to his wife, but
while she had been scandalised, he was frankly, whole-heartedly amused.

"Pixie!" he cried. "Pixie with a lover! It would be about as easy to
think of Patsie. Dear, quaint little Pixie! Who dares to say she isn't
pretty? Her funny little nose, her big, generous mouth are a hundred
times more charming than the ordinary pretty face. I'll tell you what
it is, darling,"--he sobered suddenly;--"Pixie's lover, whoever he may
be, will be an uncommonly lucky fellow!"

Husband and wife sat in silence for some moments after this, hand in
hand, as their custom was in hours of privacy, while the thoughts of
each pursued the same subject--Pixie's opening life and their own duty
towards it.

On both minds was borne the unwilling realisation that their own home
was not the ideal abode to afford the experience of life, the open
intercourse with young people of her own age which it was desirable that
the girl should now enjoy. As a means of adding to his income Captain
Victor had accepted the position of adjutant to a volunteer corps in a
northern city, and, as comparatively new residents, his list of
acquaintances was but small.

Esmeralda, or to speak more correctly, Joan, the second daughter of the
O'Shaughnessy family, as the wife of the millionaire, Geoffrey Hilliard,
possessed a beautiful country seat not sixty miles from town, while
Jack, the eldest brother, had returned to the home of his fathers, Knock
Castle, in Ireland, on the money which his wife had inherited from her
father, after he had become engaged to her in her character of a
penniless damsel. Jack was thankful all his life to remember th