She laughs a little, and then colors. "Aunt Priscilla has asked him to come to Moyne next Friday," she says, looking at the ground: "she is giving an At Home on that day, for him and Captain Cobbett. She says she feels it is a duty to her queen to show some attention to her servants." In her tone, as she says this, there is a spice of that mischief that is never very far from any pretty woman. "He is to be invited to Moyne,--to spend an entire day with you!" says Desmond, thunderstruck by this last piece of news. "Oh, no! only part of it," says Monica, meekly. "It is just as bad. It is disgraceful! Your aunts are purposely encouraging _him_ to keep you away from me. Oh, _why_," wretchedly, "should this unlucky quarrel have arisen between our house and yours?" "Well, that's your fault," says Monica. "Mine?" "Your uncle's, then. It is all the same," unjustly. "I really can't see _that_," says Mr. Desmond, very righteously aggrieved; "that is visiting the sins of the uncles upon the nephews with a vengeance! Monica, at least promise me you won't be civil to him." "To your uncle?" "Nonsense! You know I mean Ryde." "I can't be rude to him." "You can. Why not? It will keep him from calling again." No answer. "Oh, I daresay you _want_ him to call again," says Desmond, angrily. At this moment, the gates of Moyne being in sight, and those of Coole long passed, Kit suddenly appears on the top of a high stone wall, and calls gayly to Desmond to come and help her alight. "And now go away too," she says: "you are forbidden goods, you know, and we must not be seen talking to you, under pain of death." "Good-by," says Desmond, with alacrity, who is, in truth, sulky, and undesirous of further parley with his beloved. "Good-by, Miss Beresford." "Good-by," says Monica, shortly. "We shall see you again soon, no doubt," says Kit, kindly, in her clear, sweet treble. "I think it very improbable," returns he, raising his hat gravely and taking his departure. "Now, what _have_ you been saying to that wretched young man, Monica?" says Kit, severely, standing still in the middle of the road, the better to bring her sister beneath the majesty of her eye. "Nothing. Nothing that any reasonable being could object to," declares Monica, with such an amount of vigor as startles Kit. "But of all the ill-tempered, bearish, detestable men I ever met in my life, _he is the worst_." Which unlooked for explosion from the gentle Monica has the effect of silencing Kit for the remainder of the walk. CHAPTER XV. How the Misses Blake discover a gigantic fraud--How Terence is again arraigned, and brought before the Court on a charge of duplicity--and how he is nearly committed for contempt.