"Rex!" echoed Lettice in chorus. "Oh, oh! how lovely I how delicious!
However did you do it? Norah!--Norah! Norah! Oh, do come here!"

In rushed Norah, breathless with curiosity, to know what had happened,
and the next ten minutes was passed in a clamour of questionings. When
had he thought of it? How had he thought of it? Where had he found the
clothes? How had he dressed? etcetera, etcetera.

Rex paraded the room with mincing steps, and simpered at his own
reflection in the looking-glass.

"Old things of the mater's and Edna's. Brought 'em over in the cart,
and dressed in the summer-house. What a nice girl I should have made,
to be sure! Seems quite a waste, doesn't it? I say, though, I am
nearly suffocating with heat. Can't I go and take them off somewhere?"

He was crossing the hall on the way to the cloak-room, when who should
come tripping downstairs but Mary herself, trim and neat as ever, but
casting a glance the reverse of approving at the strange young woman who
had come to supplant herself.

"Good morning, Mary. I've come to apply for the place," said Rex
gravely; then suddenly picking up his skirts, displayed his trousered
legs underneath, and executed a wild schottische round the hall.

Mary gave a shriek, put her hand to her heart, and sank down on the
stairs, brushes and all, in a breathless heap. "Oh, Mr Rex, oh! I
never in all my life! Oh, what a turn you gave me! Oh! oh! oh!" And
she gasped and panted till Norah became alarmed, and went up to pat her
on the shoulder.

"Don't, Mary, don't! Oh, Mary, I wish it was all fun. I wish you
weren't going."

"So do I, Miss Norah. I don't want to leave you, but Miss Hilary--"

"I don't want you to go, Mary. I would rather have you than anyone
else."

"Ha! ha! ha!" Rex pranced round the hall in wild delight. "Look at
that now! Reginald Freer, Esquire, peacemaker and housemaid-waitress.
Apply--Brathey Manor--"

"What in the world is the matter? Has everyone gone mad? How am I
supposed to write in this uproar?" Mr Bertrand appeared at his study
door with an expression of long-enduring misery, whereat there was a
general stampede, and the house subsided into silence.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

VISITORS ARRIVE.

Whitsuntide fell in the beginning of June, and as Hilary went a tour of
inspection round the house and grounds, she was proudly conscious that
everything was looking its very best. The rooms were sweet with the
scen