nk Mrs Burrell will give in."

She stared ostentatiously through the window, and Sylvia blushed, and
had some ado not to smile at this very transparent intimation of
hostility withdrawn.

"Thank you so much! I'd love to come," she said simply; and then the
two girls talked quietly together for a few minutes before Miss Munns
came in and dispensed tea and reminiscences of all the grand people whom
she had ever met, with a view of impressing her visitor, who, of course,
was not impressed at all, but secretly amused, as listeners invariably
are under such circumstances.

Esmeralda was just rising to leave when a loud rat-tat at the knocker
made Sylvia's heart leap in expectation; and the next moment Jack came
into the room in his most easy and assured manner.

"I thought I would come across for my sister, and inquire how Miss
Trevor was after her journey," he announced; and once more Sylvia smiled
to herself as she noted how Esmeralda immediately plunged into animated
conversation with Miss Munns, to keep her attention engrossed at the
opposite end of the room.

Jack O'Shaughnessy stood by the window, and looked down upon his little
love with tender, dissatisfied eyes.

"I say," he said softly, "I can't stand this sort of thing! Two
minutes' talk, with two other people in the room. How much longer do
you suppose I can stand this?"

"You have had only one day yet. It's too soon to complain. You may
have seven years!" retorted Sylvia saucily; but at the bottom of her
heart she was glad that he found it difficult to be patient.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

BY THE RIVER.

Pixie went off in great spirits to join the Wallaces at the riverside
cottage which they had rented for the remainder of the summer. The heat
in town was already growing oppressive, and it was delightful to think
of being in the country again and running free over the dear green
fields. Esmeralda had presented her with quite a trousseau of summer
dresses, with a selection of hair-ribbons to match, at least an inch
wider than any which she had previously possessed, and she piled up her
pompadour higher than ever, and pulled out the bows to their farthest
extent in her anxiety to do justice to the occasion, and the importance
of her own position as the instructor of youth.

A pony-cart was at the station to meet her, with Viva and Inda clinging
together on the front seat, ready to pour breathless confidences into
her ear the moment she appea