way, dear,
and how long can you stay? Tell me all about it. I am consumed with
curiosity--"

"I can stay till Monday or Tuesday, if you can put me up; and I came
away because I--I suppose I am not quite up to the mark. My head
bothers me. It aches, and I see black specks floating before my eyes.
The doctor advised me to knock off for a few days, and I thought I would
rather come here than anywhere."

"I should think so, indeed. Of course we can put you up--proud and
pleased to do so. Well, this is a pleasant surprise for a dull November
day! You couldn't have had a better one if you had had a hundred
wishes, could you, Peggy? You won't feel melancholy any longer?"

"I'm just enraptured! Saturday, Sunday, Monday--three whole days and
two halves, as good as four days--almost a week! It's too delicious--
too utterly delicious to realise!"

Peggy drew deep sighs of happiness, and hung on to Arthur's arm in an
abandonment of tenderness which showed her in a new light to her
companions. She would not loosen her grasp for a moment, and even when
seated at the table kept her fingers tightly locked round his arm, as
though afraid that he might escape.

As for Arthur himself, he was in the wildest spirits. He was as
handsome a young soldier as one could wish to see, and his likeness to
Peggy seemed only to make him more attractive in the eyes of the
beholders.

"Hurrah!" he cried cheerily. "Hurrah, for a good old vicarage tea!
Scones? that's the style! Mary made them, I hope, and put in lots of
currants. Raspberry jam! I say, mater, do you remember that solemn
waitress you had, who told you that the jam was done again, and when you
exclaimed in horror, said, `Yes, 'um, it's not a bit of good buying
raspberry jam. _They like it_!' Ha, ha, ha! I've often thought of
that! That looks uncommonly good cake you have over there. Thank you,
I think I will! Begin with cake, and work steadily back to bread and
butter--that's the style, isn't it, Peggums? Esther, I looks towards
you! Mellicent, you are as thin as ever, I see. You should really do
something for it. There are regular hollows in your cheeks."

"Nasty, horrid thing! You are always teasing! How would you like it if
you were struck fat yourself?" cried Mellicent, aggrieved. But, in
spite of herself, her chubby cheeks dimpled with smiles as Arthur rolled
his eyes at her across the table, for there was something irresistibly
fascinating about th