"How we old folk get out of touch with young people!" he said. "If I had been told to guess who it was who would ask Helena to be his wife, I should have said it was Archie. Didn't you think that Archie was very fond of her?" Mixed with Jessie's misery for Archie's sake, and with her bitter contempt for her sister, was a pity for Helena, as deep as the sea, that she could be what she was. She could wear the roses Archie had sent her, and not be burned alive by them... "I never though that Helena really cared for him," she said quietly. "No? Well, you were more clear-sighted than I. But I fancy Marion thought so too. He's dining with us to-night, isn't he? Or will Helena put him off? And are we to say anything to him about it?" "I expect Helena will tell us what she wishes," said Jessie. He laughed. "No doubt she will. She--what's the phrase?--she pulls the strings in this piece, doesn't she? Bless me, it's after six o'clock. We might go across the bridge and have a stoll in Battersea Park. I expect Helena will like to be left alone. Yes; what is it?" The parlour-maid had come in, with the request that Colonel Vautier would go to see Helena for a minute now, or some time before dinner. Accordingly he went upstairs, in high good humour, stumbling on the carpet-rods. "Oh, daddy, how sweet of you to come to me at once!" she said. "Archie's dining here to-night, and I think I will tell him my news myself. He's such a dear; it would hurt him to hear it from anybody else." Colonel Vautier felt that he had perhaps not been so wrong after all. "Yes, my dear, that is kind and thoughtful of you," he said. "So I'll tell him as soon as he gets here," said she. "Will you and Jessie be very kind and let me have two minutes with him?" Helena's eyes wandered away a minute, and returned rather dewy to her father's face. "Perhaps you would tell Jessie for me," she said. She opened her eyes very wide, in a sort of childlike bewilderment. "I wonder why Jessie is so cold to me," she said. "I must have vexed her somehow without meaning it. I feel sad about it. She did not say one word when I told you and her my news; she did not kiss me..." "Jessie is never very demonstrative," said her father, intending to speak to Jessie about this. "No; perhaps that's all. Thank you ever so much, daddy." She watched them going out together, and thought what a pity it was that some people were so frank as to say that others revolted them, even though they apologized afterwards. It never paid to be coarse and rude like that... Helena, according to her plan, was in the drawing-room among his roses when Archie arrived. "It was delicious of you to send them," she said. "And I've got--something for you." "Hurrah!" said Archie. "What is it?" She had put a half sovereign and a half-crown on the corner of the mantel-piece, and handed it to him. "A tip?" he said. "No; a bet. I am poor but honest." He looked at the money.