"This--this is quite a surprise. You will forgive me if I am a little upset. I think I ought to have been prepared. However, as you young people have taken the matter into your own hands----" "Just what we have done, haven't we, Kitty?" exclaimed her lover, as if he were proclaiming the supernal wisdom of his relative. "--there is no more to be said," concluded Lady Hawborough rather lamely. "At least, I should like to have a word or two with Miss--Miss Thorold--I mean, Kitty----" "Outside, Eliza!" cried Harry, otherwise Archibald, joyously, as, catching the bewildered Mr. Thorold by the arm, he walked, almost danced, him out. Kitty did not wait for any question. "You see," she said, explaining the significance of her warning look, "it was just as well not to tell these foolish men everything. It might happen that if Harry--I mean Archibald--knew that you had meant to insist upon his marrying me--well, men get huffy so quickly, don't they?--he might refuse to do so now." "Well, he might, but I don't think it's very likely, my dear," said Lady Hawborough; and she patted the little hand that lay on her knee. "But I think you are right. We will not say anything about--yesterday. You're a clever little thing," she added, kissing her. "Can we come in?" demanded Harry, a few minutes later. "Aunt, we're all going up to the Floriani to get some lunch. Come with us, like a good soul!" "The--Flo--Floriani! _What_ is it?" asked her ladyship fearsomely. "It's a restaurant in Soho, where you get a thorough blow-out--I mean a Continental lunch--for one-and-nine," her nephew informed her. "Come on, Aunt Philippa!" Lady Hawborough shuddered. "I should be delighted, Archibald dear, but--but I think you'd better all go round to Belgrave Square with me. It--it would be safer." It was after lunch, when the two young and silly lovers were in the very ante-room where Kitty had overheard Lady Hawborough's fell designs, that Kitty, holding his head back from her for a moment, asked: "But why does she call you Archibald?" "Because it's my name, or one of 'em," he replied. "Harry Archibald Stephen Fitzwilliam----" "Oh, stop, stop! I shall feel as if I were marrying half a dozen men. But you haven't told me _why_ she calls you Archibald; and has thus caused all this confusion!" "Oh, because a lawyer chap who bolted with a lot of her money was called Henry; and, moreover, a bishop we've got in the family, and a chap my aunt's very proud of, is called Archibald." [Illustration] "She'll have to drop that name, Harry," said Kitty firmly. "I can't bear it. Do you think she will?" "I'm perfectly certain she will, if you've made up your mind she shall," he returned, with an air of profound conviction; "for it's plain to me you've captured the aunt as well as the nephew. Yes, it's a fair cop." "She's a dear," murmured Kitty, very close to his ear. FOOTNOTE: