"Tell him the truth. Say that you're sorry for him, poor chap, but even the best regulated girls will make mistakes. I'm the mistake you've made." I was silent. Then I whispered: "Will you forgive me?" "It strikes me that it is I who ought to ask you to forgive me--for not having been the first to come upon the scene." This was throwing a new light upon the subject. It had not occurred to me to look at it from that point of view before. But I had not come to the end of my confessions. Dear mamma, how careful we women ought to be! It is these crises in our lives which make us feel what short-sighted mortals we actually are. "Before Captain Pentland came"--I was pulling at one of the buttons on his waistcoat as I spoke, and I realised what a big heart Charlie's must be, if it was at all in proportion to his chest--"another friend of Lily's was stopping in the house." "Ye-es." I could not help but be conscious of a certain hesitation in his pronunciation of the word. "His name was Eliot." "Well?" There had been a moment's silence before he spoke. And, when he had spoken, there ensued a portentous pause. I hid my face still more from his examining gaze. My voice seemed almost to die away. "He, also, professed to bestow on me the gift of his affection." "The devil he did!" Yes, mamma, that was precisely what he said. It made me shiver. But he was sorry as soon as the words had passed his lips. "Forgive me! I didn't mean it! After all, it is only to be expected that every man who sees you will fall in love with you at sight." I wondered if he would talk to me like that in years to come. Do husbands of ten years' standing say such things unto their wives? Oh, how ashamed of myself I felt as I thought of what I still had to admit! Dear mamma, I will try hard never again to do what my conscience tells me is not right. If only we would always listen to the still small voice which seeks to guide us! "Charlie, you have no notion how foolish I have been! Until you came I had no proper conception of the actualities of existence. Mr. Eliot caused me to confuse the issues just as Captain Pentland did." He held me out a little way in front of him, trying to look into my face. I was careful not to let him see too much of it. I hung down my head with what, I do hope, mamma, was proper penitence. "Let me know, clearly, where we are, little girl. Am I to understand you to say that both these men asked you to marry them?" "I am afraid, Charlie, that you are to understand something of the kind." "And that you gave both of them encouragement?" I looked up at him--such a look, mamma! My eyes were swimming in tears. I knew he would not tell me to "dry up." My heart seemed to be rising to my lips.