ou don't mind, and wash my face and get rid of my hat--it is very
heavy. I shan't be long."

She rose as she spoke, and Johnny bustled to open the door for her,
too much a gentleman, in spite of all, to show he was glad to have her
go and give him a chance to clear up. At the door she paused.

"You need not order supper, Johnny," she said; "I've seen about that."

Johnny stopped, his face a shade pinker. "Oh, but," he protested, "you
shouldn't do that; you mustn't do that. I'll tell Mrs. Horn we won't
have it; I'll make it all right with her; I was just going out to get
a--a pork pie for myself."

It is to be feared this statement was no more veracious than Julia's,
and certainly it was not nearly so well made; it would not have
deceived a far less astute person than she, while hers would have
deceived a far more astute person than he.

"A pork pie?" Julia said. "You have no business to eat such things in
the evening at your time of life. I tell you I have settled supper; we
had much better have what I have got. I could not bring you a present
home from Holland; I left in a hurry, so I have bought supper instead.
It is my present to you--and myself--I have selected just what I
thought I could eat best; one has fancies, you know, after one has
been seasick."

It would require an ingeniously bad sailor to be seasick while a Dutch
cargo boat crept up the Thames in a fog, but Julia never spared the
trimmings when she did do any lying. Johnny was quite satisfied and
let her go to take off her hat--and the precious explosive which she
still carried in it.

While she was gone he tidied the room to the best of his ability. He
regretted that he had nowhere better to ask her; if he had the
sitting-room he occupied when Rawson-Clew came in September, he would
have felt quite grand. But that was a thing of the past, so he made
the best of circumstances and went to the reckless extravagance of
sixpenny worth of fire. When Julia came in, the towel-horse had been
removed from the fender, and a fire was sputtering awkwardly in the
grate, while Mr. Gillat, proud as a school-boy who has planned a
surprise treat, was trying to coax the smoke up the damp chimney.

"Johnny!" Julia exclaimed, "what extravagance! It's quite a warm
night, too!"

Johnny smiled delightedly. "I thought you'd be cold after your
journey; you look quite pale and pinched," he said; "seasickness does
leave one feeling chilly."

Julia repented of that unne