'What could he mean?' exclaimed Lady Knollys, laughing, as it were, in soliloquy; 'and I did not mention his name, I recollect now. He recognised you, and you him, when you came into the room yesterday; and now you must tell me how you discovered that he and Lady Mary were to be married.' So Milly restated her evidence, and Lady Knollys laughed unaccountably heartily; and she said-- 'They _will_ be _so_ confounded! but they deserve it; and, remember, _I_ did not say so.' 'Oh! we acquit you.' 'All I say is, such a deceitful, dangerous pair of girls--all things considered--I never heard of before,' exclaimed Lady Knollys. 'There's no such thing as conspiring in your presence.' 'Good morning. I hope you slept well.' She was addressing the lady and gentleman who were just entering the room from the conservatory. 'You'll hardly sleep so well to-night, when you have learned what eyes are upon you. Here are two very pretty detectives who have found out your secret, and entirely by your imprudence and their own cleverness have discovered that you are a pair of betrothed lovers, about to ratify your vows at the hymeneal altar. I assure you I did not tell of you; you betrayed yourselves. If you will talk in that confidential way on sofas, and call one another stealthily by your Christian names, and actually kiss at the foot of the stairs, while a clever detective is scaling them, apparently with her back toward you, you must only take the consequences, and be known prematurely as the hero and heroine of the forthcoming paragraph in the "Morning Post."' Milly and I were horribly confounded, but Cousin Monica was resolved to place us all upon the least formal terms possible, and I believe she had set about it in the right way. 'And now, girls, I am going to make a counter-discovery, which, I fear, a little conflicts with yours. This Mr. Carysbroke is Lord Ilbury, brother of this Lady Mary; and it is all my fault for not having done my honours better; but you see what clever match-making little creatures they are.' 'You can't think how flattered I am at being made the subject of a theory, even a mistaken one, by Miss Ruthyn.' And so, after our modest fit was over, Milly and I were very merry, like the rest, and we all grew a great deal more intimate that morning.