aid Sybil, the morning after her return from looking after
Lady Ramsbottom, "you would go to Grandison Square this afternoon,
Jimmy. I should be so very much obliged if you would ask dear
Carrissima to be kind enough to come and see me to-morrow."

"You obviously take me for a halfpenny postcard," he answered. "If I
go it will be without prejudice. Don't imagine I'm blind to your
little game! Sybil, I'm fed up with Carrissima. A thousand to one she
will end by marrying old Mark."

"Jimmy," said Sybil reproachfully, "you know I never bet. You would
give me the greatest pleasure in the world. I long to see you married
to some really nice girl."

"Whether I care for her or not!" suggested Jimmy.

"Oh, how can you put such words into my mouth?" said Sybil. "As if I
were capable of dreaming of such a thing. Some dear girl whom you love
and respect----"

"That's the difficulty," he answered. "Here I am waiting and trying
not to be impatient, but she doesn't come along. As soon as I see a
dear girl and love and respect her, I'll marry her like a shot if she's
willing. Probably she won't be because, you see, she would have to
love and respect me."

Having nothing better to do and little dreaming of the fate in
preparation for him, Jimmy set out in due course to Grandison Square,
where, ten minutes earlier, Mrs. Reynolds had arrived: a tall, thin
woman of about fifty years of age, who had been an intimate friend of
the late Mrs. Faversham. She had a pleasant, if too grave face, and a
certain dignity of bearing. On her entrance, she sat down close to
Colonel Faversham's chair, holding him so closely in an uninteresting
conversation that he could not pay the slightest attention to Bridget.
She, left to her own devices, looked peculiarly charming this
afternoon, in a new hat, which Carrissima knew must have cost quite
five guineas.

Colonel Faversham's face wore a gloomy expression. He was annoyed
because Bridget had not been introduced to Mrs. Reynolds, and in
considerable pain from the increasing rheumatism in his knee joint. In
the midst of his old friend's monologue, Knight announced--

"Mr. Clynesworth."

"Good-afternoon, Jimmy," cried Carrissima, rising promptly from her
chair. "How nice and surprising of you to come!"

"I'll tell the truth if I perish," he answered. "The fact is I was
sent. I'm a special messenger."

"Then Sybil is at home!"

"She turned up last night," he explained. "The