"I meant to say that it will be lonely for you after Mr Vanburgh goes to bed, and I am sure mother would be delighted to see you. We have Ned Talbot, a friend of Lil--of my brother Jim staying with us, so that there would be two other men to keep you company. When father and Jim are away, we never ask gentlemen to the house, for mother says seven women at one time are too great a tax on any man's nervous system; but you wouldn't be afraid of us when there were two other men, would you? The schoolroom girls don't come down until after dinner, so we are really only three." Gervase Vanburgh laughed aloud, and Nan looked up with a quick flash of approval, for a laugh has a tell-tale sound, and this one rang unmistakably honest and true. "I am not in the least afraid," he cried boldly. "I'd like to see you all, school-girls included. It is most kind of you to think of it, and if Mrs Rendell will really allow me, I shall be delighted to accept your invitation." So Nan ran across the street, and entered the house with the great news that Gervase Vanburgh had arrived, and--given a formal invitation--was coming that very evening to make the acquaintance of the family. CHAPTER TWENTY. AMONG THE ROSES. By no one was the news of Gervase Vanburgh's advent greeted with more enthusiasm than by Lilias herself, for, truth to tell, the day had seemed interminably long in the company of a depressed and anxious lover. The points of view from which Ned and herself regarded his position seemed to grow more hopelessly far apart the more it was discussed, and the consciousness that he was disappointed by her lack of sympathy did not tend to raise Lilias's spirits. If the question at stake had not touched the all-important subject of future comfort, she would have been willing to sacrifice her own wishes in order to preserve Ned's approval, but in this crisis of their fate she would allow no such weakness. If her own parents seemed to place Ned's scruples before her interests, if Ned himself were so ignorant of what was due to his _fiancee_ as to talk calmly of accepting the position of a clerk on a few hundreds a year, it behoved her to be firm, and make Ned understand that she would never be his wife until he could provide something more than the bare necessaries of life. Nevertheless, the task of opposition was far from pleasant, and the grave wonder of his glance cut like a knife into her vain little heart.