interrupted them:

"Oh, Percival, what a pity! Do you hear?--we are going to lose our
nicest neighbors? Dear little Glen Cottage is to be empty in a week or
so!"

"Mr. Ralph Ibbetson will decide to take it, I think; and he and Miss
Blake are to be married on the 16th of next month," returned Nan,
softly.

"Ibbetson at Glen Cottage! that red-headed fellow! My dear Miss
Challoner, what sacrilege!--what desecration! What do you mean by
forsaking us in this fashion? Are you all going to be married? Has Sir
Francis died and left you a fortune? In the name of all that is
mysterious, what is the meaning of this?"

"If you will let a person speak, Percival," returned his wife, with
dignity, "you shall have an answer:" and then she looked up in his
handsome, good-natured face, and her manner softened insensibly. "Poor
dear Mrs. Challoner has had losses! Some one has played her false, and
they are obliged to leave Glen Cottage. But Hadleigh is a nice place,"
she went on, turning to Nan: "it is very select."

"Where did you say, Evelyn?" inquired her husband, eagerly. "Hadleigh,
in Sussex? Oh, that is a snug little place; no Toms and Harries go
down there on a nine hours' trip. I was there myself once, with the
Shannontons. Perhaps Lady Fitzroy and I may run down one day and have
a look at you," he continued, with a friendly look at Phillis. It was
only one of his good-natured speeches, but his wife took umbrage at
it.

"The sea never agrees with me. I thought you knew that, Percival!"
rather reproachfully; "but I dare say we shall often see you here,"
she went on, fearing Nan would think her ungracious. "You and the
Paines are so intimate that they are sure to have you for weeks
together; it is so pleasant revisiting an old neighborhood, is it not?
I know I always feel that with regard to Nuneaton."

"Nuneaton never suits my constitution. I thought you would have
remembered that, Evelyn," returned her husband, gravely; and then they
both laughed. Lord Fitzroy was not without a sense of humor, and often
restored amity by a joking word after this fashion, and then the
conversation proceeded more smoothly.

Nan and Phillis felt far more at their ease here than they had felt at
the Paines'. There were no awkward questions asked: Lady Fitzroy was
far too well bred for that. If she wondered at all how the Challoners
were to live after they had lost their money, she kept such remarks
for her husband's private ear.

"Those