"What a comfort for me that I am out of it," said Jessie. "How nice to be an insignificant young woman whom nobody ever dreams of asking to dinner. A powdered old dowager did actually hint at my going to her musical evening the other day when she called in Bolton Row. 'Be sure you come early,' she said, gushingly, to Mrs. Tregonell and Christabel; and then, in quite another key, glancing at me, she added, and 'if Miss--er--er would like to hear my singers I should be--er--delighted,' no doubt mentally adding, 'I hope she won't have the impertinence to take me at my word.'" "Jessie, you are the most evil-thinking person I ever knew," cried Christabel. "I'm sure Lady Millamont meant to be civil." "Yes, but she did not mean me to go to her party," retorted Jessie. The happy days--the society evenings--slipped by--dining--music--dancing. And now came the brief bright season of rustic entertainments--more dancing--more music--lawn-tennis--archery--water parties--every device by which the summer hours may chime in tune with pleasure. It was July--Christabel's birthday had come and gone, bringing a necklace of single diamonds and a basket of June roses from Angus, and the most perfect thing in Park hacks from Mrs. Tregonell--but Christabel's wedding-day--more fateful than any birthday except the first--had not yet been fixed--albeit Mr. Hamleigh pressed for a decision upon this vital point. "It was to have been at Midsummer," he said, one day, when he had been discussing the question tête-à-tête with Mrs. Tregonell. "Indeed, Angus, I never said that. I told you that Christabel would be twenty at Midsummer, and that I would not consent to the marriage until after then." "Precisely, but surely that meant soon after? I thought we should be married early in July--in time to start for the Tyrol in golden weather." "I never had any fixed date in my mind," answered Mrs. Tregonell, with a pained look. Struggle with herself as she might, this engagement of Christabel's was a disappointment and a grief to her. "I thought my son would have returned before now. I should not like the wedding to take place in his absence." "And I should like him to be at the wedding," said Angus; "but I think it will be rather hard if we have to wait for the caprice of a traveller who, from what Belle tells me of his letters----" "Has Belle shown you any of his letters?" asked Mrs. Tregonell, with a vexed look. "No, I don't think he has written to her, has he?" "No, of course not; his letters are always addressed to me. He is a wretched correspondent." "I was going to say, that, from what Belle tells me, your son's movements appear most uncertain, and it really does not seem worth while to wait." "When the wedding-day is fixed, I will send him a message by the Atlantic cable. We must have him at the wedding."