“Ah,” said Harold.

“And just now papa has been whispering to me about this same Miss Avon. He commanded me—papa has no tact—to invite her to join us for a week. I wonder what that means.”

“What what means?”

“That—Mr. Airey and papa.”

“Great Heaven! Ella, what should it mean, except that two men, for whom we have had a nominal respect, have gone over to the majority of fools?”

“Oh, is that all? I was afraid that—ah, good-bye.”

“Good-bye.”


CHAPTER XXXVI.—ON THE INFLUENCE OF A MAN OF THE WORLD.