No one responded, but every eye was upon Theo, who took it all for approval and beamed again, enlarging upon her arrangements. “And that’s why I got Nancy to put on her white satin”— (_Ah!_) —“with those lace lilies round her front, so’s she could look more like a _bride_!” (What I did look like at that moment I don’t know. But the Governor couldn’t have looked more like the executioner in a cloak-and-dagger film drama.) “And _do_ you see the confetti, of those teeny silver horseshoes, and the pink rose-leaves strewn over—Oh, Nancy!”—reproachfully—“_Look_ what’s happened to the Heart! And that was supposed to be Billy’s!” Here I saw the mouth of Uncle Albert, who was sitting facing me at Mrs. Waters’ right hand, open in readiness for that approving bellow of his. “Never mind, I’ll make another. I _wanted_ to do it all like this the first evening she came down,” explained Theo further. “Only, of course, we weren’t quite sure then whether she’d like it—” (_Like_ it!) —“but it _was_ all my idea!” _Then_ came the bellow of laughter, and—“A jolly good idea too, Kiddie!” from the other of my employer’s “loud relations,” his odious uncle. “Very pretty, Theo!” “Yes, I thought it would be rather sweet! Doesn’t _Billy_?” said the child, with a half-defiant look towards the Head of the House, who looked—there is no denying it—as if he were longing to kick someone. He _did_ kick—a smothered yelp from under the table told me what. He had vented some of his feelings upon the little dog whose name meant “Sweetheart” in Welsh—who came from that port—one of those by the sea! where there are two cottages and a wooden woman—whatever that meant! The taller of the parlour-maids, handing lobster _soufflé_ to her master, wasn’t wooden enough, nor quick enough in repressing her smile. A glare of reproof was her portion as he refused the dish, and a peremptory, “Move that—er—thing. It’s in the way!” with a jerk towards the silver pot that held the spraying conservatory plant. “_Oh_, what a shame!” protested Theo loudly, as this emblem was borne away. “And I’d specially _put_ it so that it _shouldn’t_ be in his way when he wanted to look at Nancy!” “‘_Comes there much more of it?_’” I quoted to myself, but I caught Major Montresor’s eye; he was looking puzzled, almost sorry for me! And that nerved me up to laughing (I flatter myself, quite naturally!) as I murmured to Theo that she was a sentimental little goose! “Sentimental? A good thing if she is!” took up Theo’s irrepressible uncle. “I like it. In these highly-educated days it’s a good sign! Yes, I like to see the young folks still taking an interest in watching a real Romance, instead of stuffing up their heads with nothing but mixed hockey and hunger-strikes and rubbish of that sort! That never brought a girl a sweetheart yet, _did_ it, Mary? _Does_ it, Nancy? And that’s all a girl’s there for, when you get down to bedrock. I may be a bit behind the times——”