might after all conciliate every side. There
was no hurry—no need of precipitation.
So he made some grumbling excuse for
giving in, and suffered himself to be led
into the drawing-room. Mrs. Leader made
some ingenious excuses about him to the
general. "He was under great obligations
to this Doctor, and we are obliged to be a
little civil;" and everything went happily
for that night.

CHAPTER V. MRS. LEADER CHECKED.

THE next day, at breakfast time, when
the letters were delivered, Mr. Peto gave a
cry of anguish, as he read his own.

"They can't come; was there anything
so wretched? It's always the way."

One would have thought it was some
terrible calamity that had overtaken him;
but it turned out to be a disappointment on
the side of those coryphées of polite society,
who had lost their aunt, and could not
accept an engagement for some weeks.
"That old Lady Turbutt, it was just like
her always dropping her smelling-bottle
on the stairs, and blocking the way up and
down for an hour while it was looked for."
Couldn't he get someone else? No. The
wan hues of despair settled on his cheek.
He was in a tumult of agonised thought,
very much as when a cotillon had gone
hopelessly wrong, and the dancers had
lost their heads.

At dinner that day there were Captain
Montague and Colonel Bouchier, and the
wail was renewed.

"Good gracious," said Captain Montague,
"I know the very thing; something that
will do better than fifty of those St. Maur
girls." Mrs. Leader was all gratitude.
"Two of the prettiest, most piquant girls,"
he went on, "I ever met in all my life.
And not a hundred miles from this place.
Charming, refined, elegant, witty, fresh,
and natural."

"Hallo, Montague," said Colonel
Bouchier, "you are warming up, and now I
know. Yes, uncommon nice girls, I say."

"Who are these treasures?" asked
another.

Captain Montague replied gravely, and
with "intention," while all the table
listened.

"The daughters of Doctor Findlater,
the physician of the town. It is long
since I have met such a charming pair,
and, though brought up in a country town,
they would make a sensation in any drawing-
room. You could not do better than
have them, for they are as clever as they
are pretty."

"And don't forget Fin himself, ha! ha!"
said the colonel; "as jovial a fellow as ever
dined out."

Cecil Leader looked round with pride.
This valuable and opportune testimony made
his cheeks flush. There are weak
natures for whom the admiration of others
is the true test of value. He felt proud.

Mrs. Leader was much discomposed.
"Oh, out of the question," she said. "They
are very nice people, I am sure, but we
shall find plenty."

"No," said Captain Montague; "I have
a pretty wide experience of society, and I
should say Peto could not find any people
more suited. They are quite out of the
common, you know."

Old Dick Lumley always gave aid to the
lady of the house on principle. "My dear
Montague, you have only been back a few
days. You can't have known these people
long, that you are justified in speaking so
rapturously of them."

"Well," said Captain Montague, sharply,
"if it were necessary to hold strict competitive
examinations as to the merits of all the
people we meet, life would be too short.
No, there is an instinct by which we know
the right sort. As Peto is manager and
director-general, and would have engaged
the St. Maurs, I tell him he could not do
better than secure these two young ladies.
I dined there yesterday, and say again they
are perfectly charming."

"Oh, I declare," said Dick Lumley, laughing,
"this is very serious. Montague is
caught."

The party then broke up. Mrs. Leader
said not a word, but smiled, in her simpering
way, on all around. This was her great
resolver of all doubts, and gave her time to
think, for she was not at all ready and
decided. But when the company had
dispersed, she drew Cecil into her boudoir
with Mr. Leader, and, shutting the door,
confronted him, her back to it, and her
face contorted with anger.

"This is all arranged by you—all some
of the plots of that low Doctor's. Speak
to him, you are his father. Tell him that
girl shall make him a beggar first, before
we listen to such a thing."

"Indeed, Cecil, it is very wrong and
foolish——"

"That's the way to speak to a fool,
isn't it?" she said, contemptuously. "You
are a fine person to be at the head of an
estate! Then I tell you and I tell him,