"Do not trouble to show us out," said Lady Adela; and departed imposingly through the door. With a long sigh of relief Tilly dropped back into her seat. Suddenly she was aware that she was not yet alone. Mr. Mainwaring had lingered in the room. He came forward now, and took the girl’s hand in both of his. "My dear, my dear!" he said quickly. "I wish you were my daughter. God give you a good husband!" There was an ominous cough upon the landing outside; and the old gentleman, recalled to a sense of duty, trotted obediently out of the room, closing the door behind him. Tilly snatched the letter from her belt. "He loves me!" she murmured. "He loves me! He loves me still!" She was not referring to Mr. Mainwaring senior. CHAPTER XXVI THE FINAL FREAK Tilly finished writing her letter, signed and addressed it, and leaned back in her chair. She had just declined to marry Dicky Mainwaring. "That’s done, anyhow," she said to herself, with the instinctive cheerfulness of those who are born plucky. "Now I’ll go out and post it before the Family come home, and then perhaps a little walk round Bloomsbury will give me an appetite for tea." But as Tilly rose briskly to her feet her eye fell upon the letter from Dicky, lying beside the answer to it which she had just written. For the tenth time she picked it up and re-read certain passages. _I don’t think I ever loved you as I did yesterday afternoon. As I watched you fighting that brave, uphill battle of yours in the face of the most awful odds--Mother and Sylvia are awfully odd, you know--I suddenly realised how utterly and entirely I had become part of you--or you of me, if you like. I was on your side in that plucky, preposterous, transparent little conspiracy from start to finish, and when the crash came I think I was harder hit than anybody. The only complaint I have to make is that you did not take me into your confidence. I could have put you up to one or two tips which might have made all the difference--you see, I have known Mother and Sylvia longer than you have--and we could have enjoyed the fruits of victory together. Still, I forgive you for your obstinacy in trying to put the enterprise through single-handed. It was very characteristic of you, and anything that is characteristic of you is naturally extra precious to me. So don’t imagine that yesterday’s little interparental unpleasantness is going to make any difference to you and me--to You and Me!_ "To You--and Me!" echoed Tilly softly.