little scalloped line we drew round all the true knights?'

'Ay! and where would have been all your romancing about Sir Maurice de
Mohun, the pride of his name? For my part, I much prefer a cavalier
dead two hundred years ago as the object of a girl's enthusiasm--if
enthusiasm she must have--to the existing lieutenant, or even curate.'

'Certainly; I should be sorry to have been bred up to history with
individual interest and romance squeezed out of it. You see when
Jasper came home from the Crimea he exactly continued mine.'

'You have fulfilled your ideal better than falls to the lot of most
people, even to the item of knighthood.'

'Ah! you should have heard us grumble over the expense of it. And,
after all, I dare say Sir Maurice found his knight's fee quite as
inconvenient! Oh!' with a start, 'there's the first bell, and here
have I been dawdling here instead of minding my business! But it is so
nice to have you! I day, Jenny, we will have one of our good old games
at threadpaper verses and all the rest tonight. I want you to show the
children how we used to play at them.'

And the party played at paper games for nearly two hours that evening,
to the extreme delight of Gillian, Mysie, and Harry, to say nothing of
their mother and aunts, who played with all their might, even Aunt
Adeline lighting up into droll, quiet humour. Only Dolores was first
bewildered, then believed herself affronted, and soon gave up
altogether, wondering that grown-up people could be so foolish.