she can't help being sucked into the vortex.'
'Is it really?' demanded Mysie, in a voice that made Mrs. Grinstead laugh and say-
'Such is my woeful lack of experience.'
'We have fallen on a bazaar wherever we went,' said Lady Merrifield.
'But this is our first grown-up one, mamma,' said Valetta. 'There was only a sale of work before.'
They all laughed, and Lance said-
'To Stoneborough they seem like revenues-at least sales of work, for I can't say I understand the distinction.'
'Recurring brigandages,' said General Mohun.
'Ah! Uncle Reggie has never forgotten his getting a Noah's ark in a raffle,' said Mysie.
So went the merry talk, while one and another came in at Miss Mohun's verandah windows to be sustained with food and rest, and then darted forth again to renew their labours until the evening, Miss Mohun flying about everywhere on all sorts of needs, and her brother the General waiting by the dining-room to do the duties of hospitality to the strays of the families who dropped in, chattering and laughing, and exhausted.
Lady Merrifield was authorized to detain Mrs. Grinstead to the last moment possible to either, and they fell into a talk on the morality of bazaars, which, as Lady Merrifield said, had been a worry to her everywhere, while Geraldine had been out of their reach; since the Underwoods had done everything without begging, and Clement disapproved of them without the most urgent need; but, as Lance had said, his wife had grown up to them, and had gone through all the stages from delighting, acquiescing, and being bored, and they had so advanced since their early days, from being simply sales to the grand period of ornaments, costumes, and anything to attract.
'Clement consents,' said Geraldine; 'as, first, it is not a church, and then, though it does seem absurd to think that singing through the murdered Tempest should be aiding the cause of the Church, yet anything to keep our children to learning faith and truth is worthy work.'
'Alas, it is working against the stream! How things are changed when school was our romance and our domain.'
'Yes, you should hear Lance tell the story of his sister-in-law Ethel, how she began at Cocksmoor, with seven children and fifteen shillings, and thought her fortune made when she got ten pounds a year for the school-mistress; and now it is all Mrs. Rivers can do to keep out the School-board, because they had not a separate room for the hat-pegs!'
'We never had those struggles. We had enough to do to live at all in our dear old home days, except that my brother always taught Sunday classes. But anyway, this is very amusing. Those young people's characters come out so much. Ah, Gerald, what is it?'
For Gerald was coming up to the verandah with a very pretty, dark- eyed, modest-looking girl in a sailor hat, who shrank back as he said-
'I am come to ask for some luncheon for my-my Mona. She has had nothing to eat all day, and we still have the grand recognition scene to come.'
At which the girl blushed so furiously that the notion crossed Geraldine that he must have been flirting with the poor little tobacconist's daughter; but Lady Merrifield was exclaiming that he too had had nothing to eat, and General Mohun came forth to draw them into the dining-room, where he helped Ludmilla to cold lamb, salad, etc., and she sat down at Gerald's signal, very timidly, so that she gave the idea of only partaking because she was afraid to refuse.
Gerald ate hurriedly and nervously, and drank claret cup. He said they were getting on famously, his uncle's chief strength being expended in drawing out the voice of the buccaneer captain, and mitigating the boatswain. Where were the little boys? Happily disposed of. Little Felix had gone through his part, and then Fergus had carried him and Adrian off together to Clipstone to see his animals, antediluvian and otherwise.
Then in rushed Gillian, followed by Dolores.
'Oh, mother!' cried Gillian, 'there's a fresh instalment of pots and pans come in, such horrid things some of them! There's a statue in terra-cotta, half as large as life, of the Dirty Boy. Geraldine, do pray come and see what can be done with him. Kalliope is in utter despair, for they come from Craydon's, and to offend them would be fatal.'
'Kalliope and the Dirty Boy,' said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing. 'A dreadful conjunction; I must go and see if it is possible to establish the line between the sublime and the ridiculous.'
'Shall I ask your nephew's leave to let you go,' said Lady Merrifield, 'after all the orders I have received?'
'Oh, no-' she began, but Gerald had jumped up.
'I'll steer you over the drawbridge, Cherie, if go you must. Yes,'- to the young ladies-'I appreciate your needs. Nobody has the same faculty in her fingers as this aunt of mine. Come along, Mona, it is Mrs. Henderson's stall, you know.'
Ludmilla came, chiefly because she was afraid to be left, and Lady Merrifield could not but come too, meeting on the way Anna, come to implore help in arranging the Dirty Boy, before Captain Henderson knocked his head off, as he was much disposed to do.
Gillian had bounded on before with a handful of sandwiches, but Dolores tarried behind, having let the General help her to the leg of a chicken, which she seemed in no haste to dissect. Her uncle went off on some other call before she had finished, eating and drinking with the bitter sauce of reflection on the fleeting nature of young men's attentions and even confidences, and how easily everything was overthrown at sight of a pretty face, especially in the half-and-half class. She had only just come out into the verandah, wearily to return to the preparations, which had lost whatever taste they had for her, when she saw Gerald Underwood springing over the partition wall. Her impulse was to escape him, but it was too late; he came eagerly up to her, saying-
'She is safe with Mrs. Henderson. I am to go back for her when our duet comes on.'
Dolores did not want to lower herself by showing jealousy or offence, but she could not help turning decidedly away, saying-
'I am wanted.'
'Are you? I wanted to tell you why I am so interested in her. Dolores, can you hear me now?-she is my sister.'
'Your sister!' in utter amaze.
'Every one says they see it in the colour of our eyes.'
'Every one'-she seemed able to do nothing but repeat his words.
'Well, my uncle Lancelot, and-and my mother. No one else knows yet. They want to spare my aunt till this concern is over.'
'But how can it be?'
'It is a horrid business altogether!' he said, taking her down to the unfrequented parts of the lower end of the garden, where they could walk up and down hidden by the bushes and shrubs. 'You knew that my father was an artist and musician, who fled from over patronage.'
'I think I have heard so.'
'He married a singing-woman, and she grew tired of him, and of me, deserted and divorced him in Chicago, when I was ten months old. He was the dearest, most devoted of fathers, till he and I were devoured by the Indians. If they had completed their operations on my scalp, it would have been all the better for me. Instead of which Travis picked me up, brought me home, and they made me as much of an heir of all the traditions as nature would permit, all ignoring that not only was my father Bohemian ingrain, but that my mother was-in short-one of the gipsies of civilization. They never expected to hear of her again, but behold, the rapturous discovery has taken place. She recognised Lance, the only one of the family she had ever seen before, and then the voice of blood-more truly the voice of £ s. d.- -exerted itself.'
'How was it she did not find you out before?'
'My father seems to have concealed his full name; I remember his being called Tom Wood. She married in her own line after casting him off, and this pretty little thing is her child-the only tolerable part of it.'
'But she cannot have any claim on you,' said Dolores, with a more shocked look and tone than the words conveyed.
'Not she-in reason; but the worst of it is, Dolores, that the wretched woman avers that she deceived my father, and had an old rascally tyrant of an Italian husband, who might have been alive when she married.'
'Gerald!'
