ead. "Tennis is not so very
exhausting--is it, Mrs. Bethune?"

"I don't know, I'm sure. It seems to have exhausted your hair, at
all events," says Mrs. Bethune, with her quick smile. "I think you
had better go upstairs and settle it; it is very untidy."

"Is it? Is it?" says Tita.

She runs her little fingers through her pretty short locks, and
gazes round. Her eyes meet Margaret's.

"No, no," says the latter, laughing. "It looks like the hair of a
little girl. You," smiling, _"are_ a little girl. Go away and finish
your fight with Mr. Gower."

"Yes. Come! Miss Knollys is on my side. She knows I shall win," says
the stout young man; and, whilst disputing with him at every step,
Tita disappears.

"What a girl! No style, no manners," says Lady Rylton; "and yet I
must receive her as a daughter. Fancy living with that girl! A silly
child, with her hair always untidy, and a laugh that one can hear a
mile off. Yet it must be done."

"After all, it is Maurice who will have to live with her," says Mrs.
Bethune.

"Oh, I hope not," says Margaret quickly.

"Why?" asks Lady Rylton, turning to her with sharp inquiry.

"It would never do," says Margaret with decision. "They are not
suited to each other. Maurice! and that _baby!_ It is absurd! I
should certainly not counsel Maurice to take such a step as that!"

"Why not? Good heavens, Margaret, I hope you are not in love with
him, too!" says Lady Rylton.

"Too?"

Margaret looks blank.

"She means me," says Mrs. Bethune, with a slight, insolent smile.
"You know, don't you, how desperately in love with Maurice I am?"

"I know nothing," says Miss Knollys, a little curtly.

"Ah, you will!" says Mrs. Bethune, with her queer smile.

"The fact is, Margaret," says Lady Rylton, with some agitation,
"that if Maurice doesn't marry this girl, there--there will be an
end of us all. He _must_ marry her."

"But he doesn't love--he barely knows her--and a marriage without
love----"

"Is the safest thing known."

"Under given circumstances! I grant you that if two people well on
in life, old enough to know their own minds, and what they are
doing, were to marry, it might be different. They might risk a few
years of mere friendship together, and be glad of the venture later
on. But for two _young_ people to set out on life's journey with
nothing to steer by--that would be madness!"

"Ah! yes. Margaret speaks like a book," says Mrs. Bethune, with an
amused air; "Maurice, y