"Mellicent, my mother has a ticket," put in Eunice. "You can go with her and take my place. I have seen the Princess scores of times. Oh, please don't cry, it isn't worth it, indeed it isn't!" "I'd scorn to cry. I wouldn't condescend to shed a tear for the nasty horrid thing!" cried Mellicent, mopping with her handkerchief at the continuous stream which rolled down her cheeks. "It is she who should cry, not I. If I _am_ poor and shabby, I know how to behave. I'm a lady, and Rosalind Darcy is a c-cad. She _is_, and I don't care who hears me say it! I've known her all my life, and she's ashamed to be seen with me. I'll go home to-morrow, I will! I'll stay at home where people love me, and don't choose their friends for the cl-clothes they wear!" Mellicent burst into fresh tears, and Peggy looked anxiously into Arthur's face. It was drawn and fixed, and his lips were set, as if in endurance of actual physical pain. CHAPTER TEN. Four days before Peggy left town she had an amusing encounter with one of her old friends. The little party had divided, and while Mrs Saville and Mellicent shopped in the West End, the colonel and his daughter drove into the City to visit a collection of the pictures of one of the old masters. They were sauntering through the second room when Peggy's attention was attracted by a group standing at a few yards' distance--a lady, a gentleman, and two little boys with Eton collars and round-about jackets--a family group for a ducat, yet surely, surely there was something familiar in the figure and bearing of the supposed mother! She was tall and dignified, her clothes were quite miraculously tidy, and the smooth, fair hair was plaited in Puritan fashion round the head. "Can it--can it be?" queried Peggy to herself; then, catching sight of a long grave face, "It _is_!" she cried with a flash of joy, and walking forward, planted herself deliberately in the stranger's path. What she anticipated came precisely to pass, for the lady stepped back from her position, collided violently with herself, and began hurriedly to apologise. "I beg your pardon! I did not see--I hope I have not hurt you." So far in fluent unconsciousness; then suddenly she stopped short, gasped, hesitated, stared hard at the face before her, and ejaculated a breathless, "_Peggy--Saville_!" "Esther Asplin! I knew it was you! I knew no one else in the world could possess that back hair! How extraordinary to come across you here! It's a marvel that Mellicent was not with me, but we were both looking forward to seeing you at the vicarage at the end of the week!"