"It was pleasant," he said without enthusiasm, and added with a return smile: "I was thinking how jolly it must be up there where you were, looking out on the quiet fragrance of the night." And then they both laughed happily, though there was manifestly nothing to laugh at. Miss Agatha, disapproving of this mutual enjoyment, called Prudence away to make the tea; whereupon the young man followed her to the tea-table and hovered over it, wishful to be of use. "One teaspoonful for each person and one for the teapot," Miss Agatha directed precisely; and the visitor wondered with resentment why on earth the old girl didn't make the brew herself. "I hope you'll like our tea," she said, when, having handed round the various cups, Steele returned to the table for his own. "We give eighteenpence a pound for it. We drink it for an example." She did not explain why, nor for whom, the example was deemed necessary. Steele sipped his tea, and tried not to looked amazed, and assured her that it was jolly good. Then he wandered back to Prudence's side, openly curious as to her relationship in regard to the others. "I say," he murmured--"don't think me rude--but where do you come in?" Prudence scrutinised him for a perplexed moment, at a loss for his meaning; whereupon he suggested with a smile: "Niece, perhaps?" "Oh!" The gay little laugh, which so irritated Miss Agatha's ears, broke from her lips once more. "I see. No. I'm Mr Graynor's youngest daughter... by his second marriage," she added, with just a hint of malice in her voice. The young man grasped the position. "I'm getting hold of it," he said, a sympathetic light in his eyes. "The thing puzzled me. I couldn't place you. You don't seem to fit in." Then he said with a kind of inspiration, as though the idea had suddenly presented itself to him: "You don't fit in, you know. Your place rightly is leaning out of a window. That's how I shall always picture you." It was an extraordinary talk, and altogether delightful. Prudence enjoyed his visit tremendously. But when he left, Miss Agatha reproved her sharply for pushing herself forward and monopolising the visitor. "He monopolised me," Prudence contended. "I retired into corners, and he followed." "You made yourself conspicuous," Miss Agatha said, "and behaved altogether in a forward and unseemly manner."