Without more ado, she held out her hand, which contained the miniature, and after a second outburst of thanks, quite unconscious of the fact that she was leaving him abruptly, she hurried away, not homeward, but in a direction which presently brought her to a house before which a sentry paced, where she stopped. "Is Sir William within?" she asked of the uniformed servant who answered her knock; and when told that he was, added: "Wilt say that Miss Meredith begs speech with him?" The servant showed her into the parlour, then passed into the room back of it, and Janice heard the murmur of his words as he delivered her message. "Miss Meredith," cried a woman's voice. "What does that puss want with you, Sir William?" The bass of a masculine reply came to the visitor's ears, though pitched too low for her to distinguish words. "I know better than to take any man's oath concerning that," retorted the feminine speaker; and on the last word the door was flung wider open, and a woman of full figure and of very pronounced beauty burst into the room where the girl sat, closely followed, if not in fact pursued, by the British commander-in-chief. "What do you want with Sir William?" she demanded. Janice had risen, half in fright and half in courtesy; but the cry she uttered, even as the inquiry was put, was significant of something more than either. "Well," went on the questioner, "art struck with a syncope that thou dost nothing but gape and stare at me?" "I beg your pardon," faltered the girl. "I recognised-- that is--I mean, 't was thy painting that--" "Malapert!" shrieked the woman. "How dare you say I paint! Dost have the vanity to think thou 'rt the only one with a red and white skin?" "Oh, indeed, madam," gasped Janice, "I alluded not to thy painting and powdering, but to the miniature that--" "Sir William," screamed the dame, too furious even to heed the attempted explanation, "how can you stand there and hear this hussy thus insult me?" "Then in Heaven's name get back to the room from which you should ne'er have come," muttered Howe, crossly. "And leave you to the tete-a-tete you wish with this bold minx." "Ay, leave me to learn why Miss Meredith honours me with this visit." "You need not my absence, if that is all you wish to know. 'T would be highly wrong to leave a miss, however artful, unmatronised. Here I stay till I see cause to change my mind." Sir William said something below his breath with a manner suggestive of an oath, shrugged his shoulders, and turned to Janice. "Old friends are not to be controlled, Miss Meredith," he said, "and since we are to have a third for our interview, let me make you known to each other. Mrs. Loring, Miss Meredith." "I pray you, madam, to believe," entreated Janice, even as she made her curtsey, "that you entirely misinterpreted--" "I care not what you meant," broke in Mrs. Loring, without the pretence of returning the obeisance. "Say your say to Sir William, and be gone."