"Oh, it's no trouble at all, miss. I'll bring it with pleasure. I am sure you would suit me very well. I've always heard of you as such a good mistress, and I'd like to live with you; I would indeed!" Hilary sat dumbfounded. She was beginning to feel quite afraid of this terrible young woman who stood up before her, looking so tall and formidable, and tossing her head until all the shabby black feathers shook again on her hat. "I--I won't detain you any longer," she said icily, as she rose from her seat. "You can leave your address, and if I change my mind I will let you know." She laid her hand on the bell as she spoke, but, to her amazement, the young woman suddenly flopped down on a chair, and folded her arms with a determined gesture. "I won't stir an inch till I've had my lunch," she said; and from beneath the skirts of her dress there appeared a pair of stout, hob- nailed boots; from within her muff, two big, brown hands; and beneath the veil, a laughing, mischievous face. "Rex!" screamed Hilary, at the pitch of her voice. "Oh, you horrible, deceiving, bad, impertinent boy!" "Rex!" echoed Lettice in chorus. "Oh, oh! how lovely I how delicious! However did you do it? Norah!--Norah! Norah! Oh, do come here!" In rushed Norah, breathless with curiosity, to know what had happened, and the next ten minutes was passed in a clamour of questionings. When had he thought of it? How had he thought of it? Where had he found the clothes? How had he dressed? etcetera, etcetera. Rex paraded the room with mincing steps, and simpered at his own reflection in the looking-glass. "Old things of the mater's and Edna's. Brought 'em over in the cart, and dressed in the summer-house. What a nice girl I should have made, to be sure! Seems quite a waste, doesn't it? I say, though, I am nearly suffocating with heat. Can't I go and take them off somewhere?" He was crossing the hall on the way to the cloak-room, when who should come tripping downstairs but Mary herself, trim and neat as ever, but casting a glance the reverse of approving at the strange young woman who had come to supplant herself. "Good morning, Mary. I've come to apply for the place," said Rex gravely; then suddenly picking up his skirts, displayed his trousered legs underneath, and executed a wild schottische round the hall. Mary gave a shriek, put her hand to her heart, and sank down on the stairs, brushes and all, in a breathless heap. "Oh, Mr Rex, oh! I never in all my life! Oh, what a turn you gave me! Oh! oh! oh!" And she gasped and panted till Norah became alarmed, and went up to pat her on the shoulder. "Don't, Mary, don't! Oh, Mary, I wish it was all fun. I wish you weren't going." "So do I, Miss Norah. I don't want to leave you, but Miss Hilary--" "I don't want you to go, Mary. I would rather have you than anyone else."