wn to Hadleigh at Christmas and look
you up, and see for myself what sort of a place the Friary is. Tell
Nan I will get her lots of roses for her garden so she need not
trouble about that; and give them my love, and tell them how awfully
sorry I am about it all."

Poor Dick! the news of his friends' misfortunes took off the edge of
his enjoyment for a long time. Thanks to Nan's unselfishness, he did
not in the least realize the true state of affairs; nevertheless, his
honest heart was heavy at the thought of the empty cottage, and he was
quite right in saying Oldfield had grown suddenly hateful to him, and,
though he kept these thoughts to himself as much as possible, Mr.
Mayne saw that his son was depressed and ill at ease, and sent him
away to the Swiss Tyrol, with a gay party of young people, hoping a
few weeks' change would put the Challoners out of his head. Meanwhile
Nan and her sisters worked busily, and their friends crowded round
them, helping or hindering, according to their nature.

On the last afternoon there was a regular invasion of the cottage. The
drawing-room carpet was up, and the room was full of packing-cases.
Carrie Paine had taken possession of one and her sister Sophy and Lily
Twentyman had a turned-up box between them. Miss Sartoris and Gussie
Scobell had wicker chairs. Dorothy had just brought in tea, and had
placed before Nan a heterogeneous assemblage of kitchen cups and
saucers, mugs, and odds and ends of crockery, when Lady Fitzroy
entered in her habit, accompanied by her sister, the Honorable Maud
Burgoyne, both of whom seemed to enjoy the picnic excessively.

"Do let me have the mug," implored Miss Burgoyne: she was a pretty
little brunette with a _nez retrousse_. "I have never drunk out of one
since my nursery days. How cool it is, after the sunny roads! I think
carpets ought to be abolished in the summer. When I have a house of my
own, Evelyn, I mean to have Indian matting and nothing else in the
warm weather."

"I am very fond of Indian matting," returned her sister, sipping her
tea contentedly. "Fitzroy hoped to have looked in this afternoon, Mrs.
Challoner, to say good-bye, but there is an assault-at-arms at the
Albert Hall, and he is taking my young brother Algernon to see it. He
is quite inconsolable at the thought of losing such pleasant
neighbors, and sent all sorts of pretty messages," finished Lady
Fitzroy, graciously.

"Here is Edgar," exclaimed Carrie Paine; "he told us