Ladies don't wink, they only imperceptibly droop their eyelids, but the glance that Lucy gave her cousin was terribly like a wink, and brimming over with malice. "Yes," she went on. "Light that candle, you stupid creature; now hold your thermometer close to the flame; we shall soon see what the omen is worth." The maid did as she was bid, and carefully watched the tube. "Well, are the separated fates getting any nearer?" inquired the young mistress with affected solicitude. "Oh, miss, they are coming together gradually, but very slowly, miss." "Get the thing nearer to the candle, then." Poor Hephzibah obeyed; she little suspected the heartless trick played at her expense. "Oh, miss," she delightedly exclaimed, "they'll join in another instant." Bang went the fragile bulb, as it splintered into a thousand atoms, and the mercury shot in sparkling globules over the table. Lucy's ringing laugh resounded through the room. But the matter was no joke to Hephzibah, her pale lips became colourless; she pressed her hand to her heart with a gesture full of anguish, recovered herself with difficulty, gave forth a few short sharp sobs, cast an almost menacing look upon her younger mistress, then turned and rushed from the room. "How could you have the heart to tease her so?" said Georgie with honest indignation. "I'm ashamed of you, Lucy; you've no right to trifle with her feelings." "Trifle with her fiddlesticks," laughed the girl. But a knock at the door interrupted them; the discreet Capt entered, bearing a telegram upon a salver. Mrs. Haggard, to whom the envelope was addressed, tore it open with some anxiety; her face assumed a pleased expression. "Order a carriage at once, Capt," she said. The valet withdrew to execute the command. The telegram was from Haggard; it was as follows: "_Spunyarn and I are on the road, and shall reach Geneva by last train. You had better go to the Villa Lambert and arrange for taking up our quarters there, if you like the place. All well--H._" Georgie handed the paper to her cousin, the latter clapped her hands with glee. In a woman's life there is nothing more delightful than arranging a home, though it be but a temporary one. The girls hurried to prepare for their drive. And Mrs. Haggard, after attempting to soothe the wounded feelings of her maid, directed her to accompany them. With Capt on the box, the young wife and her cousin, and their still ruffled attendant, started on the lovely drive along the margin of the lake for the villa which Haggard had secured, should it meet with their mutual approval, as a home for his wife and cousin during his short projected necessary absence in America.