class="pnext">"He might fall all over himself to become one of the sailing party himself then," remarked Stillwater chuckling. "Well, he said I should talk it over with the ladies."

"It's a wonder he gave us that much consideration," said Indiana loftily.

"I reckon he thought he was humoring me. I guess he thinks I'm a gone case." Stillwater slapped his knee. "Well, I've been doing some tall thinking on my own account and it's come to this." He rose and looked at his wife. "In the old days when I was coaxing the ground, I never had these feelings, mother."

"Oh, no!"

"I'm going back to nature. I'm going to buy a farm. I know just where to lay my hands on one in Indiana. Spring is coming. I'm going to live on it and work on it, till I'm a new man again."

"I second that motion," said Mrs. Bunker, bringing her hand down on the table.

"And I," cried Indiana. "We'll all go farming."

"Well, mother, you're not saying a word."

She smiled up at him. Her eyes were full of tears.

"It—it will be like the old days," she said.

"Here are the hats!" cried Indiana, as Kitty, the maid, entered staggering under the weight of a number of boxes. They all became immediately interested in the absorbing question of spring headgear.

"How do you like this?" inquired Mrs. Bunker, perching a black net concoction on her carefully dressed head.

"Very becoming!" answered Indiana, after a critical inspection.

"Suits you fine, grandma!" said Stillwater.

"Shows what you all know!" remarked Mrs. Bunker, looking in the glass. "It's entirely too old for me." She placed it on her daughter's smooth brown coils.

"Ah!" cried Stillwater admiringly. His wife, sitting under inspection, looked inquiringly at Indiana. A mirror held no significance for Mrs. Stillwater. She was always supremely satisfied with whatever her family approved of, for her, in the way of personal adornment.

"I'll take that hat for ma," said Indiana. "It's all right."

"Yes, Mary can afford to wear it," said Mrs. Bunker. "I'm not young enough for a hat like that."

"Ladies," exclaimed Mr. Stillwater, looking at his watch. "This is a pretty interesting show, but excuse me for the liberty of reminding you that there's another, starting at a quarter past eight, at which we've made a solemn resolution to be present."

"Hear! Hear!" cried Indiana.

"It is now seven o'clock. Of course you don't take as long to dress as I do." He made quickly for the door.

"Not a bit longer than other women," cried Indiana.

"Well, we'll leave that question open," said Mr. Stillwater, disappearing.

That evening, as they were stepping from the elevator in their wraps, ready for the theatre, Mrs. Bunker uttered an exclamation of intense surprise.

"Lord Canning!"

"Mrs. Bunker; I am delighted!"

"And Lord Stafford, too!" She shook hands with an elderly gentleman, slightly foppish in appearance. "Well, of all people in the world, to meet you here to-night. I'm just ready to faint."

"Don't! Don't! Mrs. Bunker," said Lord Stafford, with a laugh of intense enjoyment.

"Lord Stafford; Lord Canning; my son-in-law, Mr. Stillwater; my daughter, Mrs. Stillwater, and my grand-daughter, Miss Stillwater."

"Indiana," thought Lord Canning, as he bowed ceremoniously.

"These gentlemen were my constant companions at Cannes last year," said Mrs. Bunker. "We and the Jennings' were together most of the time."

"I'm glad to know you, gentlemen! My mother-in-law's often talked about your kind attention to her abroad."

"Kind attention is no name for it," said Mrs. Bunker. "They gave me the best time I ever had. And now that I've caught them on American ground, I intend to repay it with interest."

"I assure you, Mrs. Bunker, you need feel no sense of obligation," said Lord Canning. "Your companionship was a source of unfailing pleasure."

"What do you think of this big town, Lord Canning?" said Mr. Stillwater, indicating his surroundings by a comprehensive wave of the hand.

"Extraordinary!" answered Lord Canning.

"How long are you going to be here?" inquired Mrs. Bunker of Lord Stafford, while her son-in-law was probing Lord Canning's recently acquired views of America.

"Oh, we're only birds of passage, Mrs. Bunker."

"So are we; but isn't it delightful to meet on the wing?"

"On the wing; ha, ha! Delightful, Mrs. Bunker! Delightful!"

"We start to-morrow for California," said Lord Canning.

"And the day after we return to Indiana," added Mrs. Bunker.

"In the summer we intend to investigate Colorado."

"I have a ranch up in the Rockies," said Stillwater. "Why, this little girl," he brought his hand down on Indiana's shoulders, "learned to shoot up there."

"Indeed!" said Lord Canning.

"Well, you just ought to have seen her once cornering a grizzly. She shot him, too—sure as I stand here."

"Extraordinary!" exclaimed Lord Canning.

"Oh, that's a small matter," remarked Indiana modestly.

"Indeed!" said Lord Canning.

"We shoot bears every day in America," she added airily.

At these words Lord Canning looked about him as though he fully expected one to appear that moment, for the purpose of allowing him to see Miss Stillwater dispatch it with all possible speed, and just as she stood there in her long white opera cloak, holding a bunch of hyacinths.

"Not here!" exclaimed Indiana.

"No?" answered Lord Canning, looking absently at her blonde pompadour, every hair of which seemed to quiver with a distinct life and individuality of its own.

Indiana gave vent to a long peal of merriment.

"No—of course not!" Lord Canning hastened to add. "Not here."

"We used to spend most part of our summers in the Rockies," said Stillwater, "but the last two or three years the ladies have preferred the Adirondacks."

"We thought of giving ourselves a month there in the autumn, before we return to England," said Lord Canning.

"Now's my chance," exclaimed Mrs. Bunker; "you must stay with us, and we'll give you fine hunting."

"Plenty of deer in the North Woods," added Stillwater. "You'll be heartily welcome if you care to rough it with us. Camp life, you know."

"I should be only too delighted," said Lord Canning. "What do you say, Uncle?"