"Will you let me get you some tea, Fay?" says Mr. Kelly, addressing the child almost anxiously. "No, thank you," says the fairy, sweetly but decidedly. "My mammy will give me half hers. I do not like any other tea." "I am not in favor to-day," says Kelly, drawing back and shrugging his shoulders slightly, but looking distinctly disappointed. It may be the child sees this, because she comes impulsively forward, and, standing on tiptoe before him, holds her arms upwards towards his neck. "I want to kiss you now," she says, solemnly, when he has taken her into his embrace. "But no one else. I only want to kiss _you_ sometimes--and _always_ mamma." "I am content to be second where mamma is first. I am glad you place me with her in your mind. I should like to be always with mamma," says Kelly. He laughs a little, and kisses the child again, and places her gently upon the ground, and then he glances at Hermia. But her face is impassive as usual. No faintest tinge deepens the ordinary pallor of her cheeks. She has the sugar tongs poised in the air, and is apparently sunk in abstruse meditation. "Now, I wonder who takes sugar and who doesn't," she says, wrinkling up her pretty brows in profound thought. "I have been here a month, yet cannot yet be sure. Mr. Kelly, you must call some one else to our assistance to take round the sugar, as you can't do everything." "I can do _nothing_," says Kelly, in a low tone, after which he turns away and calls Brian Desmond to come to him. CHAPTER XIX. How Desmond asserts himself, and shows himself a better man than his rival--And how a bunch of red roses causes a breach, and how a ring heals it. "Then it is decided," says Olga. "'The School for Scandal' first, and tableaux to follow. Now for _them_. I suppose four altogether will be quite sufficient. We must not try the patience of our poor audience past endurance." "It will be past that long before our tableaux begin," says Ulic Ronayne, in a low tone. He is dressed in a tennis suit of white flannel, and is looking particularly handsome. Olga makes a pretty little _moue_, but no audible response. "I have two arranged," she says, "but am distracted about three and four. Will anybody except Mr. Kelly come to my assistance?" "Oh, you're jealous because you didn't think of 'Enid' and the carriage-horse yourself," returns that young man, with ineffable disdain,--"or that Dolly Varden affair." "Well, that last might do,--modified a little," says Olga, brightening. "Mr. Ryde is enormous enough for anything. Quite an ideal Hugh." "Quite," says Ronayne, with a smile. "Then it has arranged itself; that is, if you agree, dear?" says Olga, turning to Monica. "It shall be as you wish. I mean, I know nothing about it," gently; "but I shall like to help you if I can."