'Such a laughing there was! Frank and I ran full tilt against a gentleman who was coming full sail before the wind. "Hard-a-port!" Frank cried. There was an awful smash. My hat blew off; and we hid in a doorway till Frank got it back again.' At Nan's earnest entreaties, her younger sister at last consented to take off her outer garments and robe herself in some of Nan's--meantime shaking a good deal of snow on to the carpet. Then she came and sat down. 'I must tell you all about it, dear Nan,' she said, 'for I am so happy; and it has been such a delightful evening. You can't imagine what a splendid companion Frank is--taking everything free and easy, and always in such a good humour. Well, we went to the theatre; and of course Edith wanted to show herself off, so I had the corner of the box with the curtains, and Frank sat next me, of course--it was "Cinderella"--beautiful!--I never saw such brilliant costumes; and even Edith was delighted with the way they sang the music. Mind, we didn't know that by this time the storm had begun. It was all like fairyland. But am I tiring you, Nan?' said Madge with a sudden compunction. 'Would you rather go to sleep again?' 'Oh no, dear.' 'Is your headache any better?' 'A great deal.' 'Shall I get you some eau-de-cologne?' 'Oh no.' 'Does it sound strange to you that I should call him Frank? It did to me at first. But of course it had to be done; so I had to get over it.' 'You don't seem to have had much difficulty,' said Nan, with an odd kind of smile. 'Well,' Madge confessed, 'he isn't like other men. There's no pretence about him. He makes friends with you at once. And you can't be very formal with any one who is lugging you through the snow.' 'No, of course not,' said Nan gravely. 'I was not saying there could be anything wrong in calling him Frank.' 'Well, the pantomime; did I tell you how good it was? Mr. Roberts says he never saw such beautifully-designed dresses in London; and the music was lovely--oh! if you had heard Cinderella, how she sang, you would have fallen in love with her, Nan. We all did. Then we had ices. There's a song which Cinderella sings Frank promised to get for me; but I can't sing. All I'm good for is to show off Edith.' 'You ought to practise more, dear.' 'But it's no good once you are married. You always drop it. If I have any time I'll take to painting. You see you have no idea, in a house like this, the amount of trouble there is in keeping up a place like Kingscourt.' 'But you know, Madge, Mrs. Holford King is there.' 'She can't be there always; she's very well up in years,' said the practical Madge. 'And you know the whole estate is now definitely settled on Frank--though there are some heavy mortgages. We shan't be able to entertain much for the first few years, I daresay--but we shall always be glad to have you, Nan.' Nan did not say anything; she turned her face away a little bit.