But apart from Mollie, who pouted and flushed, and was extremely
uncomfortable, nobody seemed to be either chilled or overwhelmed. Phil's
greeting was so cordial and unmoved that her ladyship could only proffer
him the tips of her fingers in imposing silence, and Dolly's air
of placid good-humor was so perfect that it was as good as a modest
theatrical entertainment.

She led her visitor out of the room with a most untroubled countenance,
after her ladyship had honored Gowan with a word or so, kindly
signifying her intense surprise at meeting him in the house, and rather
intimating, delicately, that she could not comprehend his extraordinary
conduct, and hoped he would not live to regret it.

The interview was not a long one, however. In about ten minutes the
carriage rolled away, and Dolly came back to the parlor with a touch of
new color on her cheek, and a dying-out spark of fire in her eye; and
though her spirits did not seem to have failed her, she was certainly a
trifle moved by something.

"Let us have another waltz." she said, rather as if she wished to
dismiss Lady Augusta from the carpet "I will play this time. Phil, find
a partner."

She sat down to the piano at once, and swept off into one of Phil's
own compositions, and from that time till the end of the evening she
scarcely gave them a moment's pause, and was herself so full of sparkle
and resources that she quite enraptured Gowan, and made the shabby room
and the queer life seem more novel and entrancing than ever.

But when the guests were gone, and only Griffith, who was always last,
remained with Phil and the girls, grouped about the fire, the light died
out of her mood, and she looked just a trifle anxious and tired.

"Girls," she said, "I have some bad news to tell you,--at least some
news that isn't exactly good. Lady Augusta has given me what Belinda
would call 'a warning.' I visit the select precincts of Bilberry House
as governess no more."

There is no denying it was a blow to them all. Her salary had been
a very necessary part of the family income, and if they had been
straitened with it, certainly there would be a struggle without it.

"Oh!" cried Mollie, remorsefully. "And you have just spent nearly all
you had on my dress. And you do so want things yourself, Dolly. What
shall you do?"

"Begin to take in the daily papers and peruse the advertising column,"
she answered, courageously. "Never mind, it will all come right before
long,