“Have you anything to tell me, dear?” she asked.

Ida gave a little pout and shrug to her shoulder.  “The Solicitor-General then opened the case for the prosecution,” said she.  “You are going to cross-examine me, Clara, so don’t deny it.  I do wish you would have that grey satin foulard of yours done up.  With a little trimming and a new white vest it would look as good as new, and it is really very dowdy.”

“You were quite late upon the lawn,” said the inexorable Clara.

“Yes, I was rather.  So were you.  Have you anything to tell me?” She broke away into her merry musical laugh.

“I was chatting with Mr. Westmacott.”

“And I was chatting with Mr. Denver.  By the way, Clara, now tell me truly, what do you think of Mr. Denver?  Do you like him?  Honestly now!”

“I like him very much indeed.  I think that he is one of the most gentlemanly, modest, manly young men that I have ever known.  So now, dear, have you nothing to tell me?” Clara smoothed down her sister’s golden hair with a motherly gesture, and stooped her face to catch the expected confidence.  She could wish nothing better than that Ida should be the wife of Harold Denver, and from the words which she had overheard as they left the lawn that evening, she could not doubt that there was some understanding between them.

But there came no confession from Ida.  Only the same mischievous smile and amused gleam in her deep blue eyes.

“That grey foulard dress——­” she began.

“Oh, you little tease!  Come now, I will ask you what you have just asked me.  Do you like Harold Denver?”

“Oh, he’s a darling!”

“Ida!”

“Well, you asked me.  That’s what I think of him.  And now, you dear old inquisitive, you will get nothing more out of me; so you must wait and not be too curious.  I’m going off to see what papa is doing.”  She sprang to her feet, threw her arms round her sister’s neck, gave her a final squeeze, and was gone.  A chorus from Olivette, sung in her clear contralto, grew fainter and fainter until it ended in the slam of a distant door.

But Clara Walker still sat in the dim-lit room with her chin upon her hands, and her dreamy eyes looking out into the gathering gloom.  It was the duty of her, a maiden, to play the part of a mother—­to guide another in paths which her own steps had not yet trodden.  Since her mother died not a thought had been given to herself, all was for her father and her sister.  In her own eyes she was herself very plain, and she knew that her manner was often ungracious when she would most wish to be gracious.  She saw her face as the glass reflected it, but she did not see the changing play of expression which gave it its charm—­the infinite pity, the sympathy, the sweet womanliness which drew towards her all who were in doubt and in trouble, even as poor slow-moving Charles Westmacott had been drawn to her