"Clumsy!" said Madeleine, pouting. "You
won't let me work. Poor Con! I'm ashamed
of you, Jack. You don't behave half as well as
Mr. Prior; he never does such things."

That is to say, reduced to English, Mr. Prior
was not in the habit of kissing Miss Flutters.

I should never have imagined he was, myself;
but Madeleine was so terribly suggestive that I
began to feel uneasy, and the lion within me
gave a roar.

"Madeleine, if I imagined such a thing
possible, I should at once resign all claim over
you, without even waiting to speak to Mr
Flutters on the subject, or wish good-bye to
your sister."

"That's just what I say," said Madeleine,
quietly; "so you needn't flare up so, or I shall
not be able to be as candid as I wish. Mr
Prior has not only been here a good many times
already, but he is coming to dinner:" here
Madeleine coughed a little: "to-night. It's very
unfortunate for me, as well as for you, for of
course I don't want him here the very first
night of your return; but he asked himself,
and papa couldn't very well refuse him then,
could he? though I frowned at him to make
him say 'No' till I thought my forehead would
never come straight again; and Conny was
speechless from surprise."

"It is unfortunate," I said, in as gruff a
voice as I could manage, with the little jewelled
hands pressing me so closely, and the blue eyes
glancing—I suppose by accident—at the
engagement-ring.

"Yes, isn't it?" said Madeleine, eagerly; and
then added, trying to take me by storm, and
trusting too much to the softening
circumstances: "That's not the worst, either. Mr.
Prior makes love to me, and I can't tell what
to do to make him leave off. He will do it,
no matter what I do. He will to-night. You'll
see."

To be told, after a few weeks' absence, that
the girl to whom I was engaged was being made
love to by the man I most disliked in the whole
world; and that he would do it!

"Now, you're not angry with me?" said
Madeleine, passing over Mr. Prior's offence, and
taking care of number one in a ladylike way,
"because it's not been my fault."

"No, I'm not angry with you, Madeleine,"
I said, "but of course there must be a stop put
to it. Leave him to me. He'll not make love
to you to-night, I fancy."

This was said with a sneer so very effective,
that Madeleine was beginning to look frightened,
when the door opened a very little way, and
Conny looked in.

"Papa's not come," she said, "but the
nursery tea is. Come, Madeleine. Perhaps
Mr. Stevens will come too," she added,
politely, suddenly seeing me in the light of an
obstacle to the nursery tea, which it was necessary
to remove before she could obtain her
sister. "Tea will do him good. It's so
refreshing, nurse says."

"I should like nothing better, Conny dear,
and I can carry you up-stairs on my back, if
you like."

Conny's eyes sparkled at this proposal, and
her cheeks grew bright.

"That would be nice," she said, and prepared
to mount; then stopped suddenly short. "Your
back," she said; "it'll hurt your back."

I assured her it would not, and carried her
up, when the queen of the nursery dismounted,
placed her horse (myself) in a low chair by the
fire, and her sister in another, and proceeded
to distribute bread-and-butter, and tea in mugs.

"You can't have the prettiest mug of all,
I'm sorry to say," Conny informed me, when
she had satisfied herself I could want nothing
more: "because I broke it last week. I'm not
generally clumsy, you know, but I did do that,
and it had roses on it, and green leaves."

I expressed my conviction that it must have
been very attractive, professing myself at the
same time full of admiration of the mug I was
using, and Conny's sense of hospitality was
satisfied.

"Could you tell me a story?" she inquired,
sidling down from her high chair, when all the
bread-and-butter was eaten up, and her sister
had refused to cut her any more; "or don't
you feel well enough?"

"I'll tell you what, Con," said her sister,
decisively, "you'll get no story till you're dressed
for dessert. Go and have your hair brushed,
your hands washed, and your frock changed,
and then you may come and sit with Mr. Stevens
while I dress for dinner."

So Conny ran off, and I was left with
Madeleine, with the warm glow of the nursery fire
throwing red lights on her brown hair, and
brightening her sweet face into new beauty.
At such a moment, who could have believed she
was a coquette, before whose witchery young
and old fell alike, fondly believing the while
they had "made an impression"? Long I sat
thus, drinking in long draughts of happiness,
building castles of colossal height, all to be
inhabited by one enchantress whose wickedness
took the form of beauty, whereby she entangled
the hearts of men, wooing them to love her by
her gentleness, driving them to madness by the
laugh in her eyes. But this beautiful witch
had said that she loved me, had promised to
come and live in my fine castles, and inhabit my
high towers, and from henceforth the sole
responsibility of controlling her rested with me
and my restraining hand. And I was no ways
afraid. Love is a strong subduer; now, sitting
beside me, her hands clasped in mine, and her
blue eyes watching my castles fade and die out
in the fire, Prior was as far from her thoughts
as from those of little Conny, who, in white
frock and coloured ribbons, had returned from
ablutions, as fresh and as bright as a daisy, and
was now standing beside me, watching our
quiet happiness with some impatience and a
little scorn.

"Poor Con," said Madeleine, rousing a little,
and blushing under the child's scrutiny; "how
stupid we all are, arn't we? I should soon have