.'

The supper was a royal one, for Mrs. Dallas was a good housekeeper; and
the tone of it was festive, for the spirits of them all were in a very
gay and Christmas mood. So it was with a good deal of surprise as well
as chagrin that Mrs. Dallas, after supper, saw her son handling his
greatcoat in the hall.

'Pitt, you are not going out?'

'Yes, mother, for a little while.'

'Where can you be going?'

'I want to run over to Colonel Gainsborough's for a minute or two.'

'Colonel Gainsborough! You don't want to see him to-night?'

'Neither to-night nor any time--at least I can live without it; but
there's somebody else there that would like to see me. I'll be back
soon, mother.'

'But, Pitt, that is quite absurd! That child can wait till morning,
surely; and I want you myself. I think I have a better claim.'

'You have had me a good while already, and shall have me again,' said
Pitt, laughing. 'I am just going to steal a little bit of the evening,
mother. Be generous!'

And he opened the hall door and was off, and the door closed behind
him. Mrs. Dallas went back to the supper room with a very discomfited
face.

'Hildebrand,' she said, in a tone that made her husband look up, 'there
is no help for it! We shall have to send him to England.'

'What now?'

'Just what I told you. He's off to see that child. Off like the North
wind!--and no more to be held.'

'That's nothing new. He never could be held. Pity we didn't name him
Boreas.'

'But do you see what he is doing?'

'No.'

'He is off to see that child.'

'That child to-day, and another to-morrow. He's a boy yet.'

'Hildebrand, I tell you there is danger.'

'Danger of what?'

'Of what you would not like.'

'My dear, young men do not fall dangerously in love with children. And
that little girl is a child yet.'

'You forget how soon she will be not a child. And she is going to be a
very remarkable-looking girl, I can tell you. And you must not forget
another thing, husband; that Pitt is as persistent as he is wilful.'

'He's got a head, I think,' said Mr. Dallas, stroking his whiskers
thoughtfully.

'_That_ won't save him. It never saved anybody. Men with heads are just
as much fools, in certain circumstances, as men without them.'

'He might fancy some other child in England, if we sent him there, you
know.'

'Yes; but at least she would be a Churchwoman,' said Mrs. Dallas, with
her handsome face all cloudy and disturbed.

Meanwhile