mustn't hurt
him, and there was nothing to make a fuss about."

"I don't see why you wanted to tell him about Mr. Vance at all for, if
you knew he'd make a fuss," said Pollyooly in a tone of disapproval.

"I told you it slipped out when I wasn't thinking," said Flossie, in a
tone which carried no conviction; and she bent hastily to the note and
added a couple of lines.

Then she broke out again in the same high-pitched, excited tone:

"And I came round here as soon as I could get away, because there
wasn't any time to be lost. Reginald says he doesn't believe in losing
time in anything. And he's going to take an afternoon off and come
round and knock the stuffing out of Mr. Vance this very day. He can
always get an afternoon off, for he's with Messrs. Mercer & Topping,
and the firm has the greatest confidence in him; he says they have."

She finished the note and folded it, saying with the air which
Pollyooly found hypocritical:

"It's really dreadful when gentlemen will quarrel about one so. But
what am I to do? There's no way of stopping them. You'll know what it
is when you get to my age--at least you would if you hadn't got red
hair."

With this almost brilliantly tactful remark, she rose, gave Pollyooly
the note, and adjured her to give it to Mr. Hilary Vance the moment he
came in.

"What time will Mr. Butterwick get here?" said Pollyooly anxiously.

"There's no saying," said Flossie cheerfully. "But he'll get here as
soon as the firm can spare him. He never loses time--Reginald doesn't."

Again she adjured Pollyooly to give Hilary Vance the note as soon as he
returned, and hurried down the street to the florist's shop.

CHAPTER III

THE INFURIATED SWAINS

Flossie's news filled Pollyooly with a considerable anxiety; but she
was at a loss what to do. She knew that Hilary Vance was at the Savage
Club, but she did not know whether she could reach it in time to find
him there, for it was now a quarter of two. It did not seem to her a
matter to be trusted to the electric telegraph; and living as she did
in the old-time Temple, it never occurred to her to telephone.

There was nothing to do but await his return and give him Flossie's
note of warning the moment he entered. She had been going to take the
Lump for a walk on the embankment; she must postpone it. Then, unused
to idleness, she cast about how she might fill up her time till his
return.

She had swept and dusted the room tha