John opened his eyes very wide.

“So!” said he, slowly, “I never thought of that.  You think she would be jealous?” and John smiled, as men do at the idea that their wives may be jealous, not disliking it on the whole.

“I know I shouldn’t be in much charity with a woman my husband proposed to me as a model; that is to say, supposing I had one,” said Grace.

“That reminds me,” said John, suddenly rising up from the sofa.  “Do you know, Gracie, that Colonel Sydenham has come back from his cruise?”

“I had heard of it,” said Grace, quietly.  “Now, John, don’t interrupt me.  I’m just going to turn this corner, and must count,—­’one, two, three, four, five, six,’”—­

John looked at his sister.  “How handsome she looks when her cheeks have that color!” he thought.  “I wonder if there ever was any thing in that affair between them.”

CHAPTER XIV.

A GREAT MORAL CONFLICT.

“Now, John dear, I have something very particular that I want you to promise me,” said Mrs. Lillie, a day or two after the scenes last recorded.  Our Lillie had recovered her spirits, and got over her headache, and had come down and done her best to be delightful; and when a very pretty woman, who has all her life studied the art of pleasing, does that, she generally succeeds.

John thought to himself he “didn’t care what she was, he loved her;” and that she certainly was the prettiest, most bewitching little creature on earth.  He flung his sighs and his doubts and fears to the wind, and suffered himself to be coaxed, and cajoled, and led captive, in the most amiable manner possible.

His fair one had a point to carry,—­a point that instinct told her was to be managed with great adroitness.

“Well,” said John, over his newspaper, “what is this something so very particular?”

“First, sir, put down that paper, and listen to me,” said Mrs. Lillie, coming up and seating herself on his knee, and sweeping down the offending paper with an air of authority.

“Yes’m,” said John, submissively.  “Let’s see,—­how was that in the marriage service?  I promised to obey, didn’t I?”

“Of course you did; that service is always interpreted by contraries,—­ever since Eve made Adam mind her in the beginning,” said Mrs. Lillie, laughing.

“And got things into a pretty mess in that way,” said John; “but come, now, what is it?”

“Well, John, you know the Follingsbees are coming next week?”

“I know it,” said John, looking amiable and conciliatory.

“Well, dear, there are some things about our establishment that are not just as I should feel pleased to receive them to.”

“Ah!” said John; “why, Lillie, I thought we were fine as a fiddle, from the top of the house to the bottom.”

’"Oh! it’s not the house; the house is splendid.  I shouldn’t be in the least ashamed to show it to anybody; but about the table arrangements.”