"I do, for we shall now have news of the Coles."
"And is that all you will welcome him all the way from Ottawa for?"
"That is all, Lilian; these little flirtations, pour passez le temp, soon burn themselves out."
"What a funny woman you are, Elaine; sometimes I can't make you out at all."
"Don't try to, dear, when I puzzle you; life is too short for problem-solving, though our little friend here doesn't think so. But did Mr. King name the Coles?"
"He did."
"Thank you, Thomas," said Mrs. Gower, receiving her letters, which had been put in the letter-box by the letter-carrier.
"One moment, you will excuse me, dears, while I run my letters over." One marked "Immediate," she read to herself as follows:
"The Queen's, Wed. Eve., Nov. 9th.
"My Dear Mrs. Gower,—It is with extreme pleasure I again find myself in the same city with yourself, and am anticipating with intense eagerness an interview. I go west to-morrow p.m., so shall go up to Holmnest in the morning.
"As ever, yours devotedly,
"Cyril King."Mrs. Gower,
"Holmnest, West Toronto."
"Oh, dear! oh, dear! he may be here any moment, and I am in a quandary as to what I shall do with him. This little settling up of one's affaires de cœur is distasteful, but I have not been a bit to blame here," she thought, quietly tearing up the note, and making a holocaust of it.