restrain myself much longer."

"Then, in that case," she said, demurely, "perhaps we had better go
below."

It was half an hour before they came on deck again.

"Well, my dears," Lady Greendale said, "the more I think of it the
better I am pleased. As far as I am concerned, nothing could be
nicer. I shall have Bertha within a short drive of me, and it won't
be like losing her.

"Do you know, Bertha, your father said to me once, 'I would give
anything if some day Frank Mallett and our Bertha were to take a
fancy to each other. There is nothing I should like more than to
have her settled near us, and there is no one I know more likely to
make her happy than he would be.' I am sure, dear, that you will be
glad to know that your engagement would have had his approval, as
it has mine."

Bertha bent down and kissed her mother, with tears standing in her
eyes.

"It will be a great pleasure to us both to have you so near us,"
Frank said, earnestly. "You know that, having lost my own mother so
long ago, I have always looked upon you as more of a mother than
anyone else, and have always felt almost as much at home in your
house as in my own.

"Now, let us sit down and talk it over quietly. In the first place,
I propose that on Monday, when you leave Lord Haverley's, you shall
both come here for a time. The Solent will be very pleasant for the
next fortnight, and we can then take a fortnight's cruise west,
and, if you like, land at Plymouth, and go straight home."

"I should be very glad," Lady Greendale said at once, rejoiced at
the thought that she would thus avoid the necessity of answering
any questions about Bertha; "and there will be no occasion at all
to speak of this at my cousin's. There might be all sorts of
questions asked, and expressions of surprise, and so on. It will be
quite time enough to write to our friends after we have been
comfortably settled at home for a time. We can talk over all that
afterwards."

"Yes, and I should think, Lady Greendale, that it would save the
trouble of two letters if, while mentioning that Bertha is engaged
to your neighbour, Major Mallett, you could add that the marriage
will come off in the course of a few weeks.

"Don't you think so, Bertha?"

"Certainly not," she said, saucily. "It will be quite time to talk
about that a long time hence."

"Well, I will put off talking about it for a short time, but, you
see, I have had a year's waiting already."

Very pleasan