Maud liked Miss Marjory, and was quite ready to come and sit by her after dinner, before Tor joined them. Mrs. Lorraine was teaching Ethel some new stitch in crewels. ‘So your birthday is just imminent, is it, Maud? You should have let me know earlier, that I might have come provided. However, I dare say I can find something in my dressing-case which will supply the deficiency. We shall see. Old-fashioned things are coming into fashion again, I hear. Have you caught the mania yet?’ ‘Oh, Miss Marjory, you are too good!’ cried Maud, laughing and blushing. ‘I think they are perfectly lovely—everyone does now!’ ‘Ah, well, we must see. Old ornaments or old lace. I wonder if I ought to think of an approaching wedding, too?’ Maud’s eyes looked mischievous, her mouth demure. She shook her head gravely. ‘Ah, Miss Marjory, you want to make me commit myself. You are just as curious as anybody else, I see. You know I am not bound to give my answer till the 24th.’ ‘No; and I am not even curious about it. I know already what it will be.’ ‘Has Ethel——?’ ‘Ethel has told me nothing. You have told me.’ ‘What have I told you?’ ‘That a girl of your nature and your name would look higher than _that_. Philip Debenham’s sister will never marry Alfred Belassis.’ Maud laughed again, and came closer to Miss Marjory, laying one hand confidingly in hers, with a pretty, childlike gesture that was half a caress. ‘Miss Marjory, you have guessed quite right. I really couldn’t. I have thought of everything a hundred times over, but I can’t bring my mind to it. Once I thought I could. A little while back I quite fancied it would come to that; but now that I have seen Phil—oh no! I really couldn’t!’ ‘What has Phil to do with it? Doesn’t he approve?’ ‘Oh, it isn’t that! Phil does not interfere. I know he doesn’t like the Belassis’; but he is a dear boy, and would not stand in my way, if he thought my happiness depended upon it. But it is since I’ve known Phil that I’ve felt as I do.’ ‘Felt what?’ ‘Why, what men can be and sometimes are. You see,’ she continued naively, ‘I used to have a very poor opinion of them. You know, Uncle Belassis and Lewis, and old Mr. Meredith, and a cross old great-uncle of ours, were the chief specimens I had seen; and really amongst them, and the few local youths I used to meet at the mild entertainments of the neighbourhood, Lewis ranked quite as a bright and shining light. I used to wonder how it was real live men were so different from men in books, but I did not believe till he came that they were really bold and manly, and—well, like Phil is, you know.’ Miss Marjory smiled. ‘So Phil came upon you quite as a revelation?’