“I have had so much to do to-day; some one ought to write a Song of the Shirt for me. Scratch, scratch, scratch—in lieu of stitch, stitch, stitch.”

“But recollect all the good you are doing,” answered Constance.

“Yes, that is a reflection which conveys great comfort to me.”

Augustus smiled somewhat in his answer.

“Why are you always sarcastic?”

“I feel I am very sincere.”

“You are never in earnest.”

“You think so; you will find I am in earnest in some things.”

’Ow de do?” said Lady Coxe.

The couple looked up at the new-comer—it was the Count.