“An early hour?”

“The earlier the better.”

“Is six o’clock too early?”

“Too early! certainly not; on the contrary. Good-day: I must now go to Mrs. Somers; she has charge of my portmanteau.”

Then Kenelm rose.

“Poor dear Lily!” said Mrs. Braefield; “I wish she were less of a child.”

Kenelm reseated himself.

“Is she a child? I don’t think she is actually a child.”

“Not in years; she is between seventeen and eighteen: but my husband says that she is too childish to talk to, and always tells me to take her off his hands; he would rather talk with Mrs. Cameron.”

“Indeed!”