no answer.

"Well, that is not my notion of going comfortably through life!"
observed Miss Elaine Criketot, in a decided tone. "My idea is to pull
all the plums out of the cake, and leave the hard crusts for those that
like them."

"Does anybody like them?" laughingly asked Clarice.

"Well, for those who need them, then. Plenty of folks in this world are
glad of hard crusts or anything else."

"Thy metaphor is becoming rather confused," observed Diana.

"Dost thou not think, Elaine Criketot, that it might be only fair to
leave a few plums for those whose usual fare is crusts? A crust now and
then would scarcely hurt the dainty damsels who commonly regale
themselves on plums."

It was a fourth voice which said this--a voice which nobody expected,
and the sound of which brought all the girls to their feet in an
instant.

"Most certainly, Lord Earl," replied Elaine, courtesying low; "but I
hope they would be somebody else's plums than mine."

"I see," said the Earl, with that sparkle of fun in his eyes, which they
all knew. "Self-denial is a holy and virtuous quality, to be cultivated
by all men--except me. Well, we might all subscribe that creed with
little sacrifice. But then where would be the self-denial?"

"Please it the Lord Earl, it might be practised by those who liked it."

"I should be happy to hear of any one who liked self-denial," responded
the Earl, laughing. "Is that not a contradiction in terms?"

Elaine was about to make a half-saucy answer, mixed sufficiently with
reverence to take away any appearance of offence, when a sight met her
eyes which struck her into silent horror. In the doorway, looking a
shade more acetous than usual, stood Lady Margaret. It was well known
to all the bower-maidens of the Countess of Cornwall that there were two
crimes on her code which were treated as capital offences. Laughing was
the less, and being caught in conversation with a man was the greater.
But beneath both these depths was a deeper depth yet, and this was
talking to the Earl. Never was a more perfect exemplification of the
dog in the manger than the Lady Margaret of Cornwall. She did not want
the Earl for herself, but she was absolutely determined that no one else
should so much as speak to him. Here was Elaine, caught red-handed in
the commission of all three of these stupendous crimes. And if the
offence could be made worse, it was so by the Earl saying, as he walked
away, "I pray you,