the border in the
early morning, havin' the baggage, which we ain't got, examined on
arrival."

The company expressed hearty approval of the plan, and it was easy to
see, in the case of the ladies at least, that Friend Othniel's sagacity
had won him a much-improved position in their estimation.

The waiter now came bustling in and out of the room, and Mrs. Mackintosh
drew Cecil apart into the embrasure of a window.

"You mustn't think I'm too hard on you, young man," she said, "though I
can talk like a house afire when I once get r'iled. I know you didn't
mean to get us into this scrape. You're a good-hearted chap, or you
wouldn't have given us all a breakfast when you didn't need to, and I
want you to understand that I'll stand by you whatever happens. I've
taken a real liking to you, because you can look me straight in the eye,
and I know you're worth a dozen of those chaps one sees hanging round a
theatre; and if you behave yourself nicely, you won't find you've got a
better friend than Betsy Mackintosh." And she squeezed his hand with an
honest fervour that many a man might have envied.

Cecil thanked her for her confidence in him, and turned to have a few
words with Miss Arminster, who had been constantly in his mind. When she
had admitted to the Justice of the Peace that she was a married woman,
he felt as if somebody had poured a pitcher of ice-water down his back.
Of course he hardly considered his sentiment for her as serious, but he
was at the age when a young man feels it a personal grievance if he
discovers that a pretty girl is married. Indeed, the fact that the
little actress had been so blind to her own interests as not to keep her
heart and hand free till he came along first caused him to realise how
hard he was hit.

"I do hope you've not been too much fatigued?" he said, sitting down
beside her.

"Oh, you mustn't bother about that," she replied, raising her eyes to
his in a decidedly disconcerting manner. "I'm afraid you must have
thought me very selfish and ungrateful for seeming to care so much about
my own appearance and so little about all you've done for me."

"Oh, don't speak of that," he protested.

"But I must speak of it," she insisted. "I can't begin to tell you how I
appreciated it. It was plucky and just splendid, and some day or other I
want you to take me out driving again, in another sort of trap. You're
the best whip I ever knew."

He flushed under her praise, and began to s