Lady Dacre looked at him keenly, smiled with a moisture in her eyes, and came up to him. "How much too much do I take for granted?" she asked softly. Sir Temple burst into a laugh, and kissed her. "We will borrow poor Archdale's scales, and weigh it, and find out," he answered. There was over a week of the beautiful weather that midsummer brings, and the days passed full of gayety. Both Archdale and his mother did everything for the enjoyment of their guests. They showed them the most beautiful views on shore, and by sailing took them to places of interest not to be reached by land, while dinner-parties and garden-parties made them acquainted with the best society of the city. From morning until night the house was full of talk, and jest, and laughter. Among the guests one day had been Mr. Royal and Mrs. Eveleigh. They had come with Colonel and Madam Pepperell, at whose house they were then visiting, in accordance with a promise made the autumn before when the Colonel and his wife had been guests of Mr. Royal. More than once, Elizabeth had met the party from Seascape, but she could not come here, she was not sure enough in her heart of not being Stephen Archdale's wife. She compromised with her father by promising to go to Colonel Archdale's, for that gentleman had told them that they were to be asked there. "Elizabeth was right not to come," Madam Pepperell had said to her guest on the way to Seascape. "There are people small enough to have said that she was making an inventory." "Not any of the Archdale family?" inquired Mr. Royal. "Not mother or son, certainly. As to the Colonel, it is easy to see that he admires Elizabeth." "Um!" commented Elizabeth's father.