little witch as you are."

Ormonde kissed her hand and departed.

"Jolly, plucky little woman," he thought, as he walked toward the
Bayswater Road, looking for a hansom. "Just the sort to save a man
trouble, and get full value out of a sovereign." He continued to muse on
the wonderful discovery he had made of a woman perfectly planned,
according to man's ideal--sweet, yielding, tenderly sympathetic, willing
and capable to ward off all annoyances from her master, full of feeling
for _his_ troubles, and not to be moved by her own to sad looks,
unbecoming tears, or downcast spirits--all softness to him, all
bristling sharpness to the rest of the world. "Such a woman would answer
my purpose as well as a woman with money, and she is an uncommonly
tempting morsel. But then those infernal boys! I am not going to provide
for another fellow's brats, and they can't have more than sixty pounds
between them from the fund! No; I must not make an ass of myself, even
for a pretty, clever woman, who has rather a hankering for myself, or I
am much mistaken. That sister-in-law of hers is the making of an
uncommon fine woman. There's a dash of a tragedy queen about her, but it
will be good fun to play her against the widow."

And the widow, as she rang for the house-maid to remove the tea-things,
indulged in a few speculations on her side. "He was evidently
disappointed with Katherine. I am not surprised. She is looking ill, and
she has _such_ ungracious manners! Of course she will come to this
Richmond party when I ask her, and I must ask her. Ormonde is a good
deal smitten with me, but he'll not lose his head. It is an awful thing
to be poor and to have two boys. Oh, how dreadful it is to live in this
horrible dull hole! I wonder if Colonel Ormonde will ever propose for