e had seen it yet, and was
glad to answer:--"Yes--I saw the tea 'stood ready' by your chair. All
but the real sugar and milk. Dolly sits beside it on the floor--all her
leisure time I believe--and dreams of bliss to come. Dave sympathizes at
heart, but affects superiority. It's his manhood." Old Maisie said
again:--"The darling children!" and kept on looking at the letter.

Gwen's satisfaction at this was to be dashed slightly. For she found
herself asked, to her surprise, "Who is Granny Marrowbone?" She
replied:--"Of course Dave wants his other Granny, from the country." She
waited for an assent, but none came.

Instead, old Maisie said reflectively, as though recalling an incident
of some interest:--"Oh yes!--Granny Marrowbone was his other Granny in
the country, where he went to stay, and saw Jones's Bull. I think she
must be a nice old lady." Gwen said nothing. Better pass this by; it
would be forgotten.

But the strong individuality of that Bull came in the way. Had not they
visited him together only the other day? He struck confusion into memory
and oblivion alike. The face Gwen saw, when the letter that hid it fell
on the coverlid, was almost terrified. "Oh, see the things I say!" cried
old Maisie, in great distress of mind. "How am I ever to know it right?"
She clung to Gwen's hand in a sort of panic. In a few moments she said,
in an awed sort of voice:--"Was that Phoebe, then, that I saw when we
stopped at the Cottage, in the carriage, after the Bull?"

"Yes, dear! And you are in the Cottage now. And Phoebe is coming back
soon. And Ruth."

CHAPTER XXIII

CATHERINE WHEELS. CENTIPEDES. CENTENARIANS. BACKGAMMON. IT.
HEREAFTER CORNER. LADY KATHERINE STUARTLAVEROCK. BISHOP BERKELEY.
THE COUNTESS'S VISIT REVIEWED. A CODEX OF HUMAN WEAKNESS. AN
EXPOSITION OF SELFISHNESS. HOW ADRIAN WOULD HOLD ON LIKE GRIM
DEATH. A BELDAM, CRONE, HAG, OR DOWDY. SUICIDE. THE LITTLE BOTTLE
OF INDIAN POISON. MORE SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. GWEN'S DAILY BULLETINS.
ONESIMUS. TURTLE SOUP AND CHAMPAGNE. FOXBOURNE. HOW THEY WENT TO
CHORLTON, AND ANOTHER DOG SMELT ACHILLES

As he who has godfathered a Catherine Wheel stands at a respectful
distance while it spits and fizzes, so may the story that reunites
lovers who have been more than a week apart. The parallel, however, does
not hold good throughout, for the Catherine Wheel usually gets stuck
after ignition, and has to be stimulated judiciously,