"They know how much depends upon my opinion," she said to herself; and she smiled graciously upon them both as one carried Pepine down the rocks, the other her shawl, and gave his arm; ending by playfully sending them afterwards to the girls. "Old girl's warm, I know," said Vanleigh to himself. "We must keep in with the old nymph, Van," said Sir Felix to him at the end of the day; just about the same time that Tiny was crying silently in her bedroom; and Fin striding up and down like a small tragedy queen. "He's a born idiot, Tiny!" she exclaimed; "and what pa can mean by making such a fuss over him, and telling me it's a proud thing to become a lady of title, I don't know. Ahem!--Lady Landells--fine, isn't it? I don't see that dear ma's any happier for being Lady Rea." "Papa seems infatuated with them," said Tiny, bitterly. "Yes; and when he found that black captain paying you such attention, I saw him smile and rub his hands." "Oh, don't Fin!" exclaimed Tiny, shuddering. "I believe he's a regular Bluebeard. Look at the little blue-black dots all over his chin. I shouldn't be at all surprised if he's got half a dozen wives in a sort of Madame Tussaud's Blue Chamber of Horrors, preserved in waxwork." "Pray don't be so foolish, Fin." "Foolish? I don't call it foolish to talk about our future husbands." "Fin!" cried her sister. "Well, you see if that isn't what pa means! I saw Aunt Matty smirking about it and petting the captain; and ma was almost in tears about their goings on." "Oh, Fin! don't talk so," said Tiny, sadly; "I shall never marry." "Till you say Yes at the altar, and the bevy of beauteous bridesmaids dissolve in tears," laughed Fin. "I say, though, Tiny, I'm not going to be bought and sold like a heroine of romance. I wouldn't have that Sir Felix--no, not if he was ten thousand baronets; and if you listen to Bluebeard, Tiny, you are no sister of mine." "Do you think papa seriously thinks anything of the kind?" "I'm sure of it, dear, and--and--and--oh! Tiny, Tiny--I do feel so very, very miserable!" To the surprise of her sister, she threw herself in her arms, and they indulged in the sweet feminine luxury of a good cry, ending by Fin declaring that she shouldn't go back to her own room; and more than once, even in sleep, the pillows upon which the two pretty little flushed faces lay, side by side, were wet with tears that stole from beneath their eyelids in their troubled dreams. And now the day of the dinner had arrived, and Lady Rea had had such a furiously red face that Sir Hampton told her she ought to be ashamed of herself, and made the poor little woman, who had been fretting herself to death to do honour to his guests, shed tears of vexation. Next there was a furious ringing of Sir Hampton's bell, about six o'clock, and a demand whether the house was to smell of cabbage like that.