'I am glad it is not a barren fig tree,' said Cargrim, introducing a scriptural allusion in his most clerical manner. 'Barren indeed! it has five figs on it. Really, sitting under its shade one would fancy one was in Palestine. Do come, Mr Cargrim,' and Miss Whichello fluttered through the door like an escaping bird. 'With pleasure; the more so, as I know we shall not be missed.' 'Damn!' muttered Captain Pendle, when the door closed on Cargrim's smile and insinuating looks. 'Captain Pendle!' exclaimed Miss Arden, becomingly shocked. 'Captain Pendle indeed!' said the young man, slipping his arm round Mab; 'and why not George?' 'I thought Mr Cargrim might hear.' 'He ought to; like the ass, his ears are long enough.' 'Still, he is anything but an ass--George.' 'If he isn't an ass he's a beast,' rejoined Pendle, promptly, 'and it comes to much the same thing.' 'Well, you need not swear at him.' 'If I didn't swear I'd kick him, Mab; and think of the scandal to the Church. Cargrim's a sneaking, time-serving sycophant. I wonder my father can endure him; I can't!' 'I don't like him myself,' confessed Mab, as they seated themselves in the window-seat. 'I should--think--not!' cried Captain George, in so deliberate and disgusted a tone that Mab laughed. Whereat he kissed her and was reproved, so that both betook themselves to argument as to the righteousness or unrighteousness of kissing on a Sunday. George Pendle was a tall, slim, and very good-looking young man in every sense of the word. He was as fair as Mab was dark, with bright blue eyes and a bronzed skin, against which his smartly-pointed moustache appeared by contrast almost white. With his upright figure, his alert military air, and merry smile, he looked an extremely handsome and desirable lover; and so Mab thought, although she reproved him with orthodox modesty for snatching a kiss unasked. But if men had to request favours of this sort, there would not be much kissing in the world. Moreover, stolen kisses, like stolen fruit, have a piquant flavour of their own.