girls ought to marry well," observed Lord Fitzroy, when he
found himself alone again with his wife. "Miss Challoner is as pretty
a creature as one need see, but Miss Phillis has the most in her."

"How are they to meet people if they are going to bury themselves in a
little sea-side place?" she returned, regretfully. "Shall I put on my
habit now, Percy? do you think it will be cool enough for our ride?"

"Yes, run along, my pet, and don't keep me too long waiting."
Nevertheless, Lord Fitzroy did not object when his wife made room for
him a moment beside her on the couch, while she made it up to him for
her cross speeches, as she told him.

"There, little mother, it is all done!" exclaimed Phillis, in a tone
of triumph, as later on in the afternoon they returned to the cottage;
but in spite of her bravado, both the girls looked terribly jaded, and
Nan especially seemed out of spirits; but then they had been round the
Longmead garden, and had gathered some flowers in the conservatory,
and this alone would have been depressing work to Nan.

From that time they lived in a perpetual whirl, a bustle of activity
that grew greater; and not less, from day to day. Mrs. Challoner had
quietly but decidedly refused the Paines' invitation. Nan was right;
nothing would have induced her to leave her girls in their trouble:
she made light of their discomfort, forgot her invalid airs, and
persisted in fatiguing herself to an alarming extent.

"You must let me do things; I should be wretched to sit with my hands
before me, and not help you," she said with tears in her eyes, and
when they appealed in desperation to Dorothy, she took her mistress's
side:

"Working hurts less than worrying. Don't you be fretting about the
mistress too much, or watching her too closely. It will do her no
harm, take my word for it." And Dorothy was right.

But there was one piece of work that Nan set her mother to do before
they left the cottage.

"Mother," she said to her one day when they were alone together. "Mrs.
Mayne will be wondering why you do not answer her letter. I think you
had better write, and tell her a little about things. We must not put
it off any longer, or she will be hurt with us." And Mrs. Challoner
very reluctantly set about her unpleasant task.

But, after all, it was Nan who furnished the greater part of the
composition. Mrs. Challoner was rather verbose and descriptive in her
style. Nan cut down her sentences ruthlessly, an