The housemaid shook her head as if despising such excuses; but ten minutes after, when a mug of the hot sweet-scented compound was placed before her by cook, who winked at Edward as she did so, the lady of the dustpan and brush condescended to simper, and say, "O, the very idee!" Then she smiled, and at the end of another ten minutes the trio were all smiling as they sat with their feet on the fender, Edward regaling himself and his fellow-servants with an account of what had taken place during the afternoon. "I should say it was as near as could be three o'clock," said Edward punctiliously; "it might have been a little after, though I hadn't heard it strike, or it might have been a little before: I ain't certain. Anyhow, it was as near as could be to three o'clock when the front-door bell rings. "`Visitor for Miss Bedford,' I says to myself, laughing like, and meaning it as a joke; for as we'd had one that day, I didn't of course expect no more." "What time was it as Sir Philip Vining went away?" said cook, who was deeply interested. "O, that was before lunch," said Edward. "To be sure, so it was," said the housemaid. "Well, I slips on my coat--for I was dusting the glasses over before going to lay the dinner-cloth--and up I goes." "And up you goes," said cook; for Edward had paused to soften his hard face with a little more of the stewpan decoction. "Yes, up I goes, to find it was Mr Charles Vining, looking as bright and happy as could be--quite another man to what he was when he come last week. "`Ah,' I says to myself, `you don't know about your governor being here afore lunch, young man, or you'd be laughing the other side of your mouth.' But I says aloud: "`To see Miss Bedford, sir?' "`No, my man,' he says; and he looked at me very curious and hesitating, as if he'd like to have said `yes.' "`Show me in to your mistress,' he says." "Now it's a-coming!" said cook, rocking herself to and fro with excitement, and rubbing her hands softly together. "Now what's a-coming, stoopid?" said Edward gruffly. "What d'ye mean?" "I--I only meant that the interesting bit was now coming--the denowment, you know," said cook humbly, and seeking to mollify the insulted narrator by emptying the little stewpan, cloves, bits of ginger, and all into his mug. "If you're so precious clever, you'd better tell it yourself," growled Edward fiercely, "instead of keeping on interrupting like that. Who's to go on, I should like to know?" "O, I'm sure cook didn't mean nothing, Mr Eddard," said the interested housemaid. "Do go on!" "What's she want to say anything for, if she don't mean anything then, eh?" grumbled Edward. "I hate such ways." Cook looked at housemaid, and slightly raised her hands, while the offended dignitary sipped and muttered, and muttered and sipped, and his audience waited, not daring to speak, lest they should miss the rest of the expected treat.