other Theodore have been made unhappy by such a circumstance. But
Harry, she knew, would not like it; and therefore Harry must wait. "It
will do him good, mamma," said Florence. "You can't think that I mean to
find fault with him; but I know that he is young in his ways. He is one
of those men who should not marry till they are twenty-eight, or
thereabouts."

"You mean that he is unsteady?"

"No; not unsteady. I don't think him a bit unsteady; but he will be
happier single for a year or two. He hasn't settled down to like his tea
and toast when he is tired of his work, as a married man should do. Do
you know that I am not sure that a little flirtation would not be very
good for him?"

"Oh, my dear!"

"It should be very moderate, you know."

"But then, suppose it wasn't moderate. I don't like to see engaged young
men going on in that way. I suppose I'm very old fashioned; but I think
when a young man is engaged, he ought to remember it and to show it. It
ought to make him a little serious, and he shouldn't be going about like
a butterfly, that may do just as it pleases in the sunshine."

During the three months which Harry remained in town before the Easter
holidays he wrote more than once to Florence, pressing her to name an
early day for their marriage. These letters were written, I think, after
certain evenings spent under favorable circumstances in Onslow Crescent,
when he was full of the merits of domestic comfort, and perhaps also
owed some of their inspiration to the fact that Lady Ongar had left
London without seeing him. He had called repeatedly in Bolton Street,
having been specially pressed to do so by Lady Ongar, but he had only
once found her at home, and then a third person had been present. This
third person had been a lady who was not introduced to him, but he had
learned from her speech that she was a foreigner. On that occasion Lady
Ongar had made herself gracious and pleasant, but nothing had passed
which interested him, and, most unreasonably, he had felt himself to be
provoked. When next he went to Bolton Street he found that Lady Ongar
had left London. She had gone down to Ongar Park, and, as far as the
woman at the house knew, intended to remain there till after Easter.
Harry had some undefined idea that she should not have taken such a step
without telling him. Had she not declared to him that he was her only
friend? When a friend is going out of town, leaving an only friend
behind, that fr