r Mellicent! You have a most uncomfortable memory! Your
capacity for unimportant detail is truly astounding!" cried the vicar
protestingly; but Mellicent's description had been received with so much
interest by the visitors that the snub had but little effect. She
proceeded to enlarge on the appearance, manner, and eccentricities of
the brother-to-be, while Peggy gasped, gurgled, and exclaimed with a
fervour great enough to satisfy the most exacting of gossips.

"I never, no, never, heard anything so exciting. Did she tell you that
I met them in London? I remarked on the condition of his coat--inches
thick in dust, I do assure you, and she was haughty, and gave me to
understand that he had something better to do than brush his clothes. I
hope she won't bear me a grudge for my indiscretion. It will be a
lesson to me not to make personal remarks for the future. Dear, dear
me, how I do long to peep in at the drawing-room window! Do you think
they would mind very much, if they looked up and saw my face flattened
against the pane? When are we going to see them, and to what class of
engaged couples do they belong? Proper? Mediocre? Gushingly loving?"

"H'm!" deliberated Mellicent uncertainly. "He calls her, `My dear.' If
I were engaged, and a man called me `My dear,' I should break it off on
the spot; but I believe he likes her all the same. He kept handing her
the butter and cruet at breakfast every other minute, and he jumps up to
open the door for her, and asks if she doesn't feel the draught. And as
for her, she perfectly scowls at you if you dare to breathe in his
presence. She thinks he is the most wonderful man that ever lived."

"Quite right too! I mean to be very proud of him myself; for he is to
be my own son. I don't know him yet, but from all we have heard I am
sure it will be easy to take him into our hearts. Peggy dear, we have a
quarter of an hour before tea, and we must not disturb the poor dears
until then, so come into the garden and have a walk round with me. We
haven't had a chat to ourselves for an age of Sundays."

No, Peggy reflected, this was quite true; but there had been reasons why
she, at least, had avoided _tete-a-tete_ interviews, and she had
believed that Mrs Asplin would be even more anxious than herself to
leave the dreaded subject untouched. Such, however, was evidently not
the case, for no sooner was the garden reached than she burst into
impetuous speech.

"Oh, Pe