man! I could never summon up courage to
find fault, no matter what mistakes he made. And you are so cool about
it!"

"My dear, I'm used to it. Consider the position I have had to fill
these last three years in Indiah!" drawled Miss Peggy, and leant her
head against the cushions of her chair with an exhausted air, which
seemed to imply that she had come straight from the duties of Government
House itself. Then suddenly she straightened herself, and attacked the
teapot.

"I forget if you take sugar in your tea. So few people do nowadays.
And cream? It's rather strong, I'm afraid. Be sure to tell me if it's
exactly as you like."

"Thank you!" murmured Mellicent faintly. She put the cup down on a
table close at hand, and fumbled nervously with her gloves.

"P-Peggy!"

"Yes, dear."

"Peg-gy!"

"Yes, Mellicent, what is it?"

"Oh, Peggy, I feel--I feel so uncomfortable! It's all so strange and
different from what I expected. I thought I should feel at home the
moment I saw you--but I don't, not a bit. You look so grown-up and
proper, and your dress is so grand, and you have done your hair like the
people in the fashion-books, and I never can make out how on earth they
twist it in and out... We are the same age, but you seem ever so much
older, and I don't feel that it is you at all."

"The inference is, that I never _was_ proper, nor tidy, nor well-dressed
in the old days! Not very complimentary to me, I must say," began Peggy
lightly, and then caught sight of a tear-drop glittering on Mellicent's
eyelashes, which sobered her very quickly. Crying? No, surely not; yet
tears were there, undeniable tears, filling the blue eyes, and rolling
slowly down over the pink cheeks. Peggy dropped down on her knees, and
clasped her hands round the plump blue waist.

"Why, Mill, what is it? What grieves you, dear? What have I done, or
said, or looked--horrid thing that I am!--to vex you within ten minutes
of your arrival? I never, never meant it!"

"You haven't done anything! It's my own fault. I'm sorry to be so
silly, Peggy, but all this time I have been longing and longing to see
you, and thinking that it would be just the same as in the old days;
but, oh, Peggy, we've led such different lives, and it's not the same--
oh, it's not the same at all! I have stood still, but you have moved
on, and there's such a big, big difference. I realised it all of a
sudden, and began to cry like a baby, but it's no