"I don't mind being called 'tallow face,'" says Esther, with a low laugh--"Juliet was; her father said to her, 'Out, you baggage! you tallow face!'" "He must have been an ancestor of Sir Thomas's in direct male line, must not he?" says the young man, gaily stooping over her and whispering. Seeing them so familiarly and joyously whisper together, Constance looks up with an air of astonished displeasure, which Gerard perceiving, instantly turns towards her. "What are you making, Conny?" "Braces." "For me, no doubt? With your usual thoughtfulness, you recollected that my birthday falls next week, and you were preparing a little surprise for me. Well, never mind; though I have made the discovery rather prematurely, I'll be as much surprised as ever when the day of presentation arrives." "They are not for you, St. John; they are for the bazaar." "The bazaar!" he repeats, a little testily. "For the last month all your thoughts have tended bazaarwards; you neither eat, nor sleep, nor speak, nor hear, nor smell, without some reference to the bazaar." "Bazaar! Humbug!" growls Sir Thomas, rising and walking towards the door. "A parcel of idle women getting together to sell trash and make asses of themselves!" Then he goes out, and bangs the door. "I would not for worlds have given him the satisfaction of agreeing with him while he was in the room," says St. John, insensibly speaking in a louder key now that the autocrat before whom all voices sink has removed himself; "but, for once in my life, I must confess to coinciding in opinion with aged P.: to be pestered with unfeminine, unladylike importunity to buy things that one would far rather be without--to be lavishly generous, and get no credit for it--to be swindled without any hope of legal redress; this is the essence of a charitable bazaar!" "Dear me!" says Esther, with a crestfallen sigh. "And I had been looking forward to it so much!" He sits down on a low chair beside her sofa. "Looking forward to a bazaar!" he echoes, with a half-incredulous smile. "My dear Miss Craven, what a revelation as to your past history that one sentence is! Why, I should as soon think of looking forward to a visit to the dentist, or to my mother's funeral!" "No one expects to _enjoy_ it; it is a necessary evil," says Miss Blessington, with resignation. "Like dancing with married men, or going to church?" "Conny! Conny!" shouts Sir Thomas from somewhere in the unseen distance. Conny rises, though reluctantly, and leaves the other two _tête-à-tête_. "Miss Blessington is going to have a stall," says Esther, presently, for the sake of saying something, catching a little nervously at the first remark that occurred to her. "Yes." "And I am to help her." "Yes." "But I will promise not to pester you with unfeminine, unladylike importunity to buy my wares." "I am sorry to hear it." "Miss Blessington has two friends coming to stay with her for it." "Yes." "Are you glad or sorry?"