be sure it was this 'ouse, sir, in partic'lar.
You see there's a good many in the square, sir. I was just waitin' to
make sure. He come after you'd gone last night, and said he 'ad to
meet the ladies, but he'd forgotten where they were goin' to, and
James, suspectin' nothin', told 'im."

"Well, I don't think he will trouble me again," Beth said cheerfully,
concerned to see Mr. Kilroy so seriously annoyed. "I told him what I
thought of him in such unmistakable terms that he walked out of the
house without any form of farewell."

Angelica looked grave. "I am afraid you've made a spiteful enemy,
Beth," she observed. "That kind of cat-man is capable of any meanness
if his vanity is wounded; if he can injure you, he will."

"Oh, as to that, I don't see what he can do," said Mr. Kilroy.

"He can supply the press with odious personal paragraphs, spread
calumnies at the clubs, and write scratch-cat criticisms on the book
when it appears," Angelica said. "There are plenty of people who will
listen to that kind of man, and take their opinions from him."

"But what does it matter," said Beth in her tolerant way. "All you
whom I love and respect will judge me and my work for yourselves. If
you are pleased, I shall rejoice; if you find fault, I shall be
grateful and profit. But I should be a poor shallow thing, like
society itself, if I allowed myself to be disturbed or influenced by
the Alfred Cayley Pounces of the press. And as to society!" Beth
laughed. "At first, when I went anywhere, I used to ask myself all the
time when would the pleasure begin! But now I am younger, thanks to
you; and I enjoy everything. I look on and laugh. But for the rest, I
must be indifferent. It would be an insult to one's intellect to set
any store on such tinsel as that of which the verdicts of society are
made."

* * * * *

Beth had been thinking a good deal about Dan lately, and had come to
the conclusion that, with all his faults, he was very much to be
preferred to the Alfred Cayley Pounce kind of creature. She had more
hope of him, somehow; and she went back determined that it should not
be her fault if they did not arrive at a better understanding. He gave
her a good opportunity on the evening of her arrival. They were
sitting out in the garden after dinner, on that comfortable seat by
the privet hedge which Beth overlooked from her secret chamber. Behind
them the hedge was thick, and in front a border of