"Millie thought you would be tired," two or three voices cried.
"I don't think I am exactly tired," I said deliberately. "But everything is strange to me, and I am strange to all of you. So it really will be a kindness if Miss Millington does not mind pouring out the tea, just this once. To-morrow I mean to be quite fresh, and ready for all my duties. May I sit at the side of the table and be lazy this afternoon? I shall not ask it a second time."
I saw glances exchanged, and I knew that Miss Millington felt herself in a manner checkmated. It is a misfortune that I have had to do so soon anything which savours of checkmating. She rose without a word and went to the head of the table, Popsie and Pet hanging on to either arm, and Thyrza yielding to her somewhat sullenly.
I must confess to a feeling of relief, when seven o'clock came, at the absence of Miss Millington from dinner. The presence of that little person acts already as an incubus on my spirits.
The evening has been very much a repetition of yesterday evening. To-morrow may be different, for Mrs. Hepburn and her daughter, Gladys, are expected to dine with us. I am curious to see the young embryo authoress. One gets rather tired of embryo authoresses in these days, when everybody is trying to rush into print, with or without anything to say; still, Gladys Hepburn may possibly belong to the more limited class of those who really have something to say.
Maggie is evidently fired by example. I see her scribbling away at side-tables, the other girls peeping over her shoulder and offering suggestions. Apparently she does not dislike a little fuss made about the matter.
The Hepburns have lived for two or three years past in Glynde Cottage, a small house round the next corner. Gladys, Nellie Romilly's friend, is an only daughter, eighteen years old. Mrs. Hepburn is a widow, and seems to be universally esteemed. A brother of hers—bachelor or widower—lives with them; also a lanky lame youth, rather younger than Gladys, and two little girls, about the same age as Popsie and Pet. These three are Gladys' first cousins, and were left orphans not very long ago, I believe.
[CHAPTER IX.]
THE QUESTION OF ABBREVIATIONS.
THE SAME.