And of
course you will want to go to the play, and the opera, and all that is
going on."

"Not too much," said Mrs. Warrender. "The air of London is almost enough
at first, but come, and we shall see."

She said nothing, however, about Theo, nor was there any chance of saying
more. But when Cavendish took Chatty downstairs to put her in the
carriage (only a cab, but that is natural to country people in town),
he hazarded a whisper as they went downstairs, "Remember there is still
something to tell me." "Oh yes," she replied, "but mamma herself, I am
sure----" "No," he said, "she has nothing to do with it. It is between
you and me." This little conference made her wonderfully bright and
smiling when she took her place beside her mother. She did not say
anything for a time, but when the cab turned into Piccadilly, with its
long lines of lights,--an illumination which is not very magnificent
now, and was still less magnificent then, but very new and fine to
Chatty, accustomed to little more guidance through the dark than
that which is given by the light of a lantern or the oil lamp in Mrs.
Bagley's shop,--she suddenly said, "Well! London is very pleasant,"
as if that was a fact of which she was the first discoverer.

"Is it not?" said her mother, who was far more disinterested and had not
had her judgment biassed by any whisper on the stairs. "I am very glad
that you like it, Chatty. That will make my pleasure complete."

"Oh, who could help liking it, mamma?" She blushed a little as she
said this, but the night was kind and covered it; and how could Mrs.
Warrender divine that this gentle enthusiasm related to the discovery of
what Chatty called a friend among so many strangers, and not to the mere
locality in which this meeting had taken place? Who could help liking
it? To be talked to _like that_, with eyes that said more than even the
words, with that sudden look of pleasure, with the delightful little
mystery of a special confidence between them, and with the prospect of
meetings hereafter,--who could tell how many?--of going to the play.
Chatty laughed under her breath with pleasure, at the thought. It was a
most admirable idea to come to London. After all, whatever Minnie might
say, there was nobody for understanding how to make people happy like
mamma!

Dick's sensations were not so innocent nor so sweet. He walked home to
his chambers, smoking his cigar, and chewing the cud of fancy, which was
more bitter th