"No, my dear." Mrs. Archinard's deep sense of accumulated injury evidently got quite the better of her manners. "No, my dear, you never _could_ read aloud and never _did_. I never asked it of you. You are really occupied as a girl should be. At all events you fulfil your social duties. You see that people come to see me. As I cannot go out, as Hilda will not, I really don't know what I should do were it not for you. And, as it is, no one came this afternoon until Mr. Odd made his welcome appearance." "But Mr. Odd came at five, and you always read till then." Katherine's voice was gently playful. Hilda had not said one word, and her expression seemed now absolutely dogged. "At this season, Katherine! You forget that it is night by four! And how a girl with any regard for her mother's wishes can walk about the streets of Paris alone after that hour it passes my comprehension to understand." "Do you care about bicycling, Mr. Odd?" The change was abrupt but welcome. "Because I am going to the Bois to-morrow morning, and alone for once." Katherine smiled at him over the kettle which she was lifting. "Papa has deserted me." "I should enjoy it immensely. And you," he looked at Hilda, "won't you come?" "Oh, I can't," said Hilda, with a troubled look. "Thanks so much." "Oh no, Hilda can't," laughed Mrs. Archinard. "And where is the Captain off to?" queried Peter hastily. He felt that he would like to shake Mrs. Archinard. Hilda's stubborn silence might certainly be irritating, and Odd had sympathy for parental claims and wishes, especially concerning the advisability of a beautiful girl walking in the streets at night unescorted, sacrificed to youthful conceit; but Mrs. Archinard's personality certainly weakened all claims, and her taste was as certainly atrocious. "Papa," said Katherine, pouring out the tea, "is going to-morrow morning to the Riviera. Lucky papa!" Odd thought with some amusement of the £120 that constituted papa's "luck." "I have only been once to Monte Carlo, and I won such a lot. Only imagine how forty pounds turned my head. I revelled in hats and gloves for a whole year. Then we go to-morrow, Mr. Odd? I have my own bicycle. I have kept it near the Porte Dauphine, and you can hire a very nice one at the same place." "May I call for you here at ten, then? Will that suit you?" "Very well." Odd watched Katherine as she carried the tea and cake to her sister. Hilda gave a little start. "O Katherine, how good of you! I didn't realize what you were doing." "It is you who are good, my pet," said Katherine in a low, gentle voice. Peter thought it a pretty little scene. "A great deal of latitude must be granted to the young person who invented that teapot," he said to Hilda. "One must work hard to do anything in art, mustn't one? A most lovely teapot, Hilda."