r when Mr.
Tudor proposed that the drawing-room should be refurnished.

'It is such a pretty room, Mr. Cunliffe,' he remonstrated; 'and it
will be ready by the time you want to get married. Mother Drabble's
arrangement of chairs and tables is simply hideous. I was quite ashamed
when Mrs. Maberley and her daughter called the other day.'

'Nonsense, Lawrence!' returned Max, rather sharply. 'What do two
bachelors want with a drawing-room at all? You and Ursula may talk as
much as you like, but I do not mean to throw away good money on such
nonsense. We will have a new book-case and writing-table, and fit up the
little gray room as your study--and, well, perhaps I may buy a new
carpet, but nothing more.' And we were obliged to be content with this.

Max brought out a couple of wicker chairs on the terrace presently, and
proposed that we should have our coffee out of doors. Mr. Tudor grumbled
a little, because he had a letter to write; but I was not sorry when he
left me alone with Max. I really liked Mr. Tudor, but we were neither of
us in the mood for his good-natured chatter.

'I think old Lawrence is very much improved,' observed Max, as we watched
his retreating figure. 'His sermons have more ballast, and he is
altogether grown. I begin to have hopes of him now.'

'He is older, of course,' I remarked oracularly, wondering what Max would
say if he knew the truth. 'Well, Max, did you go up to Gladwyn last
night?'

'Yes,' he returned, with a quick sigh, 'and Hamilton made me stay to
dinner. I have found out about Captain Hamilton. He cannot get leave just
yet, and they do not expect him until the end of November.'

'I am sorry to hear that. Do you not wish that you had taken my advice
now, and gone down to Bournemouth?' But a most emphatic 'No' on Max's
part was my answer to this.

'I am very thankful I did nothing of the kind,' he returned, a little
irritably. 'You meant well, Ursula, but it would have been a mistake.'

'Hamilton told me about his cousin,' he went on; 'but his sister was in
the room. She coloured very much and looked embarrassed directly Claude's
name was mentioned.'

'That was because Miss Darrell was there.' But I should have been wiser
and, held my tongue.

'You are wrong again,' he returned calmly. 'Miss Darrell was dining at
the Maberleys', and never came in until I was going.'

'How very strange!' was my comment to this.

'Not stranger than Miss Hamilton's manner the whole evening, I