ne."

"You--beg pardon, sir?"

"Look here, Painter. I'll drop in here after dinner for some coffee. I
want to talk to you. See? Not a word to the General."

"Glad to see you, Sir Roger, but----"

"All right. I'll put you up to it. Here they come. Present me to
Madame."

They went away, haying; arranged with the Painters for luncheon and a
private room on the next day but one.

"Lunch for eight," said Deane. "At least, General, I thought we might
ask our friends from the European."

"Yes--and young Laing."

"Oh, I forgot him. Yes, Laing, of course. For nine--neuf, you know,
please, madame."

"That's all right," said the General, "I'm glad to do him a turn."

"Yes, that's all right," assented Sir Roger, with the slightest
possible chuckle. "We shall have a jolly lunch, eh, General?"

CHAPTER XII

ANOTHER!

"I shall never, never forgot your generosity, John."

"No, Mary. It was your honesty and courage that did it."

"I told Mr. Ellerton the whole story, and he seemed positively
astonished."

"And Miss Bellairs admitted that when she wrote she considered such a
tiling utterly impossible. She's changed a little, Mary. She's not so
cheerful and light-hearted as she used to be."

"Think what she's gone through. I've noticed just the same in Mr.
Ellerton, but--"

"You hope to restore him soon?"

"Oh, well, I expect Miss Bellairs--what a pretty girl she is,
John--will soon revive too, now she is with you again. John, have; you
observed anything peculiar in Aunt Sarah's manner?"

"To tell you the truth, I fancied she was rather short with me once or
twice at dinner."

"I believe she is--isn't pleased at--at what's happened. She hasn't
taken much to Mr. Ellerton, and you know she liked you so much, that I
think she still wants you as one of the family."

John laughed: then he leant forward and said in a low voice:

"Have you settled anything about dates?"

"No. Mr. Ellerton--well he didn't introduce the subject: so of course I
didn't. Have you?"

"No, we haven't. I made some suggestion of the kind, but Miss Bellairs
didn't fall in with it. She won't even let me ask her father's consent
just yet."

"Mr. Ellerton proposes not to announce our--anything--for a few days."

"Well," said John, "I shall insist on an announcement very shortly, and
you ought to do the same, Mary. We know the evils--" He checked
himself, but Mary was not embarrassed.

"Of secret engagements?" she said calmly. "We