s twenty-five. Peter, of
course, has a very large fortune. Still, one would not like to be
responsible for a marriage, even if it is suitable, and I should not
like the Erskines to think I had not looked after Jane properly.'

That nothing should happen always seemed to Miss Abingdon the height of
safety and of peace. She mistrusted events of any kind, and had
probably remained single owing to her inability to make up her mind to
such a momentous decision as is necessarily involved by matrimony. She
had never been out of England, and now could seldom be got to leave
home; whenever she quitted her own house something was sure to happen,
and Miss Abingdon disapproved of happenings. She believed in the
essential respectability of monotony, and loved routine. But alas for
routine and respectability and a peaceful and serene existence! Even
elderly ladies, who dress in black satin and pay their bills weekly,
and whose most stimulating and exciting morning is the one spent in
scolding the gardener, may be touched with sorrows for which they are
not responsible, and shaken by tragedies such as they never dreamed
would come near them.

The young couple on the lawn left the unfinished rabbit-hutch and
paint-pots and strolled towards a garden-seat. All the gates and seats
on Miss Abingdon's small property were painted white once a year, and
their trim spotlessness gave an air of homely opulence to the place.
The bench which her young relatives sought was placed beneath a
beneficent cedar tree that stretched out long, kindly branches, and
looked as though it were wrought of stitch-work in deep blue satin.
Jane wiped her fingers upon the baize apron, and Peter lighted a
cigarette.

'Have you seen Toffy's new motor-car yet?' he asked.

Had any one demanded of Peter or Jane what they meant by the art of
conversation, they would probably have replied that it had something to
do with Ollendorf's method.

'How 's Toffy going to afford a motor?' said Jane, with interest. 'Is
it going to be "the cheapest thing in the end," like all Toffy's
extravagances?'

Finance, one of the forbidden topics of 1850, was discussed to-day with
a frankness which Miss Abingdon thought positively indelicate.

'He says he 'll save railway fares,' said Peter, 'and as they are the
only thing for which Toffy has paid ready money for years, I suppose
there is something to be said for the motor.'

'Is he going to drive it himself?'

'He says s