Desirous of diverting the conversation from a topic that threatened renewed tilts, she said timidly: 

“You do not in the least assist me, with reference to my music.  Would you object to having a hired piano in the house?  I could have it placed in my room, and then my practising in the middle of the day, or in the evening would never be interfered with, and you could have your morning nap.”

“Indeed, Miss Orme, a very good suggestion; a capital idea.  I will speak to Erle about it to-night.”

Regina absolutely coloured at the shadowy compliment.

“Will it be necessary to trouble Mr. Palma with the matter?  He is always so busy, and besides you know much better than a gentleman what——­”

“I know nothing better than Erle Palma, where it concerns his menage, or the expenses incident to its control.”

“But out of my allowance I will pay the rent, and he need know nothing of the matter.”

“Of course that quite alters the case; and if you propose to pay the rent, there is no reason why he should be consulted.”

“Then will you please select a piano, and order it to be sent up to-day or to-morrow?  An upright could be most conveniently carried upstairs.”

“Certainly, if you wish it.  We shall be on Broadway this afternoon, and I will attend to the matter.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Palma.”

“Regina Orme! what an embryo diplomatist, what an incipient Talleyrand, Kaunitz, Bismarck you are!  Mamma is as invulnerable to all human weaknesses as one of the suits of armour hanging in the Tower of London; and during my extended and rather intimate acquaintance with her, I have never discovered but one foible incident to the flesh, love of her morning nap!  You have adroitly struck Achilles in the heel.  Sound the timbrel and sing like Miriam over your victory; for it were better to propitiate one of the house of Palma, than to strangle Pharaoh.  You should apply for a position in some foreign legation, where your talents can be fitly trained for the tangles of diplomacy.  Now if you were only a man, how admirably you would suit the Hon. Erle Palma as Deputy——­”

“He prefers to appoint his deputies without suggestion from others, and regrets he can find no vacant niche for you,” answered Mr. Palma, from the threshold of the door where he had been standing for several moments, unperceived by all but the hazel eyes of the graceful figure on the lounge.

“Ah! you steal upon one as noiselessly, yet as destructive as the rats that crept upon the bowstrings at Pelusium!  And the music of your eavesdropping voice;—­

          ’Oh it came o’er my ear like the sweet south
          That breathes upon a bank of violets.’”

She rose, made him a profound salaam, and with the black kitten in her arms, quitted the room.

“Will you come, in, Erle?  Do you wish to see me?”

Mrs. Palma always looked ill at ease when Olga and her stepbrother exchanged words, and Regina had long observed that the entrance of the latter was generally the signal of departure for the former.