ed Margaret.

"Mr. Brett, how can you be so heartless?" cried Helen.

"Your words cut me to the bone," he answered, with an easy smile, "but in
this matter I must be adamant. My dear ladies, pray consider. What a world
we should live in if people went without their meals because they were
worried. Three days of such treatment would end the South African War,
give Ireland Home Rule, bring even the American Senate to reason. A week
of it would extinguish the human race. If the system has such
potentialities, is it unreasonable to ask whether or not any single
individual--even Mr. Capella--is worth the loss of a cup of tea because he
chooses to go to Naples?"

A servant entered.

"Is it to be for three, or none?" inquired Brett, compelling Margaret to
meet his gaze.

"James, bring tea at once," said Mrs. Capella.

The barrister accepted this partial surrender. He looked out over the
park.

"What lovely weather!" Brett exclaimed. "How delightful it must be at the
sea-side just now! Really, I am greatly tempted to run up to Whitby for a
few days. Have you ever been there, Mrs. Capella? Or you, Miss Layton? No!
Well, let me recommend the north-east coast of Yorkshire as a cure for all
ills. Do you know that, within the next fortnight, you can, if energetic
enough, see from the cliffs at Whitby the sun rise and set in the sea? It
is the one place in England where such a sight is possible. And the breeze
there! When it blows from the north, it comes straight from the Polar Sea.
There is no land intervening. Naples--evil-smelling, dirty Naples! Pah!
Who but a lunatic would prefer Naples to Whitby in July!"

Margaret was now incensed, Helen surprised, and even slightly amused.

Brett rattled on, demanding and receiving occasional curt replies. The tea
came.

Whatever the failings of Beechcroft might be, they had not reached the
kitchen. Delightful little rolls of thin bread and butter, sandwiches of
cucumber and _pate de foie gras_, tempting morsels of pastry, home-made
jam, and crisp biscuits showed that the housekeeper had unconsciously
adopted Brett's view of her mistress's needs.

Margaret, hardly knowing what she did, toyed at first with these
delicacies, until she yielded to the demands of her stimulated appetite.
Helen and Brett were unfeignedly hungry, and when Brett rose to ring for
more cucumber sandwiches, they all laughed.

"The first time I met you," said Margaret, whose cheeks began to exhibit a
faint