"Bounced in ten minutes ago, and had such a fright to find a stranger here instead of you. Why didn't you send at once to tell me that you were worse?" "Because I could not have seen you if you had come. On my bad days I am best alone; but I am pulling round again, and am glad to have Gervase's company. You have made each other's acquaintance, I see! I suppose neither had much difficulty in guessing the identity of the other." "He thought I was Lilias!" said Nan, glancing at Gervase with laughing eyes. "Think of that! He will be surprised when he sees her, won't he? But I knew who he was in a moment. Now, tell me honestly, would you rather I went away? I came meaning to stay to tea, but if you don't feel able to talk to two people at once I'll come again when you are alone. I won't be a scrap offended!" Mr Vanburgh smiled. "I am sure you would not, but I should like you to stay, please. We want you to pour out tea for us; and I won't attempt to talk, but just lie still and amuse myself listening to you." "But I never can be amusing when I try,--can you?" said Nan, appealing to Gervase with a friendly smile. "The girls at home think I am amusing, because I generally say the wrong thing at the wrong moment, which may be entertaining to them, but is very poor fun for me. Maud says I speak first and think afterwards; but what can I do? I once made a vow to cure myself of being impetuous by counting twenty slowly before I began to speak, and I kept it religiously two whole days. They seemed like a month; and if I had persevered I should have become dumb, for by the time I had counted twenty the conversation had hopped on to another subject, and any remark was hopelessly out of date! So now I have gone back to my old ways, and say my say, and take the consequences." "You don't look to me as if you were given to making painful remarks," Gervase remarked in a conciliatory tone, and Nan straightened her back in defence of her own behaviour. "Wouldn't hurt a fly! That's the worst part of it. For I am so soft- hearted over other people's woes, that I shed tears regularly every time I meet a tramp, and he tells me that he is a discharged seaman who has lost his certificate, and only needs four and sixpence to take him to a port where he is certain to find fresh work. They always have lost their certificates and want a railway fare, but I can't help relieving them and handing-over last Saturday's money. But a tender heart is not much use if you make awkward remarks and quote people's own doings to their faces, as capital jokes against somebody else! I got into terrible trouble in that way with a caller only the other day, and if I had had any sense I should have stopped in time, for I had plenty of warning. Her face grew all stiff and rigid, and I wondered what in the world had given Elsie such a cough all of a sudden. Is there any cure, do you think, for a habit like this--anything I could do to make myself careful?"