"Do you think so? But really I have been so busy, I am afraid it slipped my memory. Letitia should have seen to things. At all events, she ought to have managed to come home in time." "No doubt the young lady knows Letitia too well to be astonished at anything." "But I have never seen her, and she knows none of us except Letitia. It was so provoking that she should accept the invitation just now. Almost any other time would have been better. So much going on in Clifton! And, of course, we can't take Miss Mackenzie everywhere. People haven't always spare space; and I don't even know yet whether she is presentable; and Letitia can't be perpetually leaving her. It is provoking. Letitia said we were bound to ask her before winter because it has always been a promise. I am sure I shouldn't have remembered, but I suppose I did say something once, and Letitia seems to have made the most of it. So absurd of her. And I suppose the girl will stay a month at least. Country people of that sort have no notion of paying a short visit." "Make some other arrangement, and tell her the room won't be free after a certain date." "My dear boy, how can I? Letitia has asked her for a month. 'It was always promised,' she says." "Promised! For whose sake?" "I'm sure I don't know. Letitia 'used' to wish it." "Well—if Letitia undertakes her—" "But that is the very thing! I believe Letitia would be as glad to be off it as I should be. Of course they were very good friends at school, but that is another matter. It isn't really that Letitia 'wants' her now, only she feels bound. I don't suppose Miss Mackenzie is anything particular—not pretty, or clever, and she doesn't sing or play, and her father is only the manager of a little country branch bank. For my part, I can't imagine what made Letitia take to her; only girls do like to have a fuss made about themselves, and it is plain that Miss Mackenzie has an immense admiration for Letitia. That's how it has been. And at school, as I say, it was all very well. Letitia was glad of anything to pass the time. But here it is different. She has any amount of friends; and really, between ourselves, I believe she would have been glad if Miss Mackenzie had put off coming. Only, in a sort of way, Letitia is conscientious, you know, and she declared we had to ask the girl." "Conscientious 'in a sort of way!' I should think her sense of obligation might extend so far as to include a kind welcome."