’Yes; we’ve all lost.  But who could hit it?  The lady admits no sovereign in our sex.’

‘So you’ve been betting about me?’ said Aunt Bel.  ’I ’ll settle the dispute.  Let him who guessed “Latin” pocket the stakes, and, if I guess him, let him hand them over to me.’

‘Excellent!’ cried Rose.  ’One did guess “Latin,” Aunt Bel!  Now, tell us which one it was.’

‘Not you, my dear.  You guessed “temper."’

‘No! you dreadful Aunt Bel!’

‘Let me see,’ said Aunt Bel, seriously.  ’A young man would not marry a woman with Latin, but would not guess it the impediment.  Gentlemen moderately aged are mad enough to slip their heads under any yoke, but see the obstruction.  It was a man of forty guessed “Latin.”  I request the Hon. Hamilton Everard Jocelyn to confirm it.’

Amid laughter and exclamations Hamilton confessed himself the man who had guessed Latin to be the cause of Miss Current’s remaining an old maid; Rose, crying: 

‘You really are too clever, Aunt Bel!’

A divergence to other themes ensued, and then Miss Jenny Graine said:  ‘Isn’t Juley learning Latin?  I should like to join her while I’m here.’

‘And so should I,’ responded Rose.  ’My friend Evan is teaching her during the intervals of his arduous diplomatic labours.  Will you take us into your class, Evan?’

‘Don’t be silly, girls,’ interposed Aunt Bel.  ’Do you want to graduate for my state with your eyes open?’

Evan objected his poor qualifications as a tutor, and Aunt Bel remarked, that if Juley learnt Latin at all, she should have regular instruction.

‘I am quite satisfied,’ said Juley, quietly.

‘Of course you are,’ Rose snubbed her cousin.  ’So would anybody be.  But Mama really was talking of a tutor for Juley, if she could find one.  There’s a school at Bodley; but that’s too far for one of the men to come over.’

A school at Bodley! thought Evan, and his probationary years at the Cudford Establishment rose before him; and therewith, for the first time since his residence at Beckley, the figure of John Raikes.

‘There’s a friend of mine,’ he said, aloud, ’I think if Lady Jocelyn does wish Miss Bonner to learn Latin thoroughly, he would do very well for the groundwork and would be glad of the employment.  He is very poor’

‘If he’s poor, and a friend of yours, Evan, we’ll have him,’ said Rose:  ‘we’ll ride and fetch him.’

‘Yes,’ added Miss Carrington, ’that must be quite sufficient qualification.’

Juliana was not gazing gratefully at Evan for his proposal.

Rose asked the name of Evan’s friend.  ‘His name is Raikes,’ answered Evan.  ’I don’t know where he is now.  He may be at Fallow field.  If Lady Jocelyn pleases, I will ride over to-day and see.’

‘My dear Evan!’ cried Rose, ’you don’t mean that absurd figure we saw on the cricket-field?’ She burst out laughing.  ’Oh! what fun it will be!  Let us have him here by all means.’