WHAT SHALL WE WRITE?"

The hall at the Moorhead Inn seemed very homelike to Jim Airth and Myra,
as they stood together looking around it, on their arrival.

Jim had set his heart upon bringing his wife there, on the evening of
their wedding day. Therefore they had left town immediately after the
ceremony; dined _en route_, and now stood, as they had so often stood
before when bidding one another good-night, in the lamp-light, beside the
marble table.

"Oh, Jim dear," whispered Myra, throwing back her travelling cloak,
"doesn't it all seem natural? Look at the old clock! Five minutes past
ten. The Miss Murgatroyds must have gone up, in staid procession, exactly
four minutes ago. Look at the stag's head! There is the antler, on the
topmost point of which you always hung your cap."

"Myra----"

"Yes, dear. Oh, I hope the Murgatroyds are still here. Let's look in the
book.... Yes, see! Here are their names with date of arrival, but none of
departure. And, oh, dearest, here is 'Jim Airth,' as I first saw it
written; and look at 'Mrs. O'Mara' just beneath it! How well I remember
glancing back from the turn of the staircase, seeing you come out and
read it, and wishing I had written it better. You can set me plenty of
copies now, Jim."

"Myra!----"

"Yes, dear. Do you know I am going to fly up and unpack. Then I will come
out to the honeysuckle arbour and sit with you while you smoke. And we
need not mind being late; because the dear ladies, not knowing we have
returned, will not all be sleeping with doors ajar. But oh Jim, you
_must_--however late it is--plump your boots out into the passage, just
for the fun of making Miss Susannah's heart jump unexpectedly."

"Myra! Oh, I say! My wife----"

"Yes, darling, I know! But I am perfectly certain 'Aunt Ingleby' is
peeping out of her little office at the end of the passage; also, Polly
has finished helping Sam place our luggage upstairs, and I can _feel_
her, hanging over the top banisters! Be patient for just a little while,
my Jim. Let's put our names in the visitors' book. What shall we write?
Really we shall be obliged eventually to let them know who you are. Think
what an excitement for the Miss Murgatroyds. But, just for once, I am
going to write myself down by the name, of all others, I have most wished
to bear."

So, smiling gaily up at her husband, then bending over the table to hide
her happy face from the adoration of his eyes, the newly-made Countess of
A