'Invited! I need no invitation to my father's house; but if you object to my presence I can easily dine at my club. I particularly told my mother to ask you if it made any difference, and I understood her to say it did not;' and then he wound up hotly, 'I do not know what I have done to make you think me such a cad as to intrude my presence upon you when I see it is so distasteful.' Ten minutes later, when Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava came in laden with flowers, Stella was sitting on the sofa, and at their entrance Mr. James Jones, who was sitting beside her (as Vava noted with surprise), rose, and taking Stella's hand brought her to his mother, saying, 'Mother, this is my future wife.' 'It isn't! How dare you? Leave her hand alone!' cried Vava, starting forward, and then, as it dawned upon her that _it was_, she stood still and stared at them all; for Mrs. Jones, with a cry of delight, went forward to Stella, and Mr. Jones, who came in then, seemed to be just as delighted and not a bit surprised, though he said it was a pleasant surprise; and, oddest of all, Lord Rothery--who had cared for Stella himself once--now arrived on the scene, congratulated them both most heartily, and said, 'I was a true prophet. I guessed this would be the next news.' This caused Vava to exclaim with indignation, 'How could you possibly, when _I_ knew nothing about it, nor how they met--or anything? They'd quarrelled for ever a week ago!' 'Ah! that's a sure sign,' said Lord Rothery, teasing her. He had left the Jones family to make much of Stella, and took Vava to a window to console her, for he saw that she was more angry than pleased. 'I believe it's an awful mistake,' she confided to him. 'Not a bit of it; they are frightfully in love with each other. He's a splendid fellow, and quite a gentleman,' declared the young lord. 'Then they've been horridly deceitful about it, for Stella never would be decently civil to him while I was there, and left him last week; and now I suppose they have been meeting all this week and falling in love,' said Vava in tones of disgust. 'Not they, that was done before; it's what they call a Scotch wooing, and you ought to be glad about it, instead of being so disagreeable,' he protested. A tear stole down Vava's face, but she would not give way, and only said, 'I don't see what is the use of her having taken a house when she meant to go and do this.' 'These are things one cannot foresee; one does not mean to do them; they do themselves. You'll do just the same when your time comes.' 'I shall not. If I were in love with you I should be civil to you, and let you see that I liked you,' declared Vava. 'All right; I'll remember that, and in the meantime I think you might be civil to your sister and Jamie.' Vava made a little grimace. 'It's a hideous name, Jamie Jones!' she declared.