Thank God! Whatever her personal disappointment might be, she could never feel that she was alone in the world--that among all its teeming millions there was no human being whose happiness depended upon her presence; she had been spared that worst trial to a woman's heart, and Pixie's calm taking-for-granted that she was indispensable to the family circle was the greatest comfort which she could have given. "No, I shan't leave you, darling. I have too much to do looking after you and those three big boys, and when you fly away to nests of your own, Sylvia and I have all sorts of plans for enjoying ourselves together. I have promised faithfully to wheel her about in her Bath- chair." "And I will make your caps. I'm clever at millinery," said Sylvia, pretending not to hear Jack's murmurs of protest, and looking very pretty and animated as she sat erect in her chair and gesticulated with her thin little hands. "You shall have one with pearl dangles for high days and holidays, and nice, stiff little black bows for ordinary wear. We will knit socks and mittens, and play cribbage in the evening, and talk over the days of our youth. It's almost a pity we know each other now, for we shan't be able to romance as much as we would like!" "Perhaps the romance will come in in some other way! Perhaps a husband may interfere with the claims of Saint Catherine!" said Geoffrey, putting into words the language of Jack's eyes, and everybody stared at Sylvia's face with embarrassing curiosity. "I shall never marry!" she said obstinately. Not that she meant it in the least, for she did not, but she was one of the girls who foolishly think it the right thing to protest in public, and who are mistaken enough to feel a trifle ashamed of the natural womanly longing for someone to love and to protect them, which God Himself has put in their hearts. A few girls there may be who honestly mean such a decision, but they are very few indeed, while their hearers are invariably sceptical. Not one of the O'Shaughnessys seemed in the least impressed by Sylvia's disclaimer, and it was disconcerting to hear Pixie's sympathetic, "Did no one ever ask ye? Never mind! They may still. You are not so very old!" Sylvia made up her mind there and then that it was better to say exactly what one meant in the presence of Miss Pixie O'Shaughnessy! CHAPTER ELEVEN. ESMERALDA CHECKMATED.