258 THE PANELLED HOUSE.

But a little while afterwards, Nest came into
Winny’s room, and said, ‘Really, Winny, it
would be much the best thing if you would do as
Flora wishes.”

“After the way she behaved to you!” said
Winny, indignantly.

“Yes. It isnot virtue on my part so much as ex-
pedience. Don’t you see, that as we said we parted
by mutual consent, no one would see any thing
strange in it; and then the world would understand
that there is no deadly feud between us, and that
I don’t care. That is what I want them to think,”
said Nest, flushing, “I would not for any thing
have him fancy that I was pining for him still.”

Winny said nothing, but looked disconsolate.

“Do, there’s a good girl. Indeed, I wish it
very much,” said Nest.

“Very well,” said Winny, with a resigned face.
“Tf I must I must, I suppose. Bat I shall hate it
awfully, I know.”

“Thank you, Win.” Nest kissed her little
sister, and left her; and Winny, after executing a
little dance of disgust in solitude sat’ down to write
her letter of acceptance. There was just one
thing which sweetened the draught, and that was
the opportunities this might give her of confi-
dential talks with Escott. Winny had thought
already of much sage advice she meant to bestow
apon him, for her thoughts had been with him as
much at Sandbeach as at Lyke.

Winny sent her acceptance of the honour, and
soon found that her task was to be no sinecure.
First came up Colonel Armyn, and said in his
kind, fatherly way, “I am very grateful, my dear,
for your kindness in not giving up Flora in spite
of this disagreeable affair. You see she has no
sister, and Mrs. Escott’s ideas are rather curious
upon some matters, so that I hope you will use
your good sense, and help us in the arrangements
as much as you can. I should ‘have asked your
aunt to help us in that way, but of course it would
be so painful for her that I could not think of
it.”

Then came Flora, with a demonstrative, pecking
Kiss. “ Winny, I want to consult you about my
trousseau. Do you think I-ought to have two
square-cut gowns and two low ones, or will one
square do? And do you think Valenciennes or
Maltese lace goes best with blue silk ?” etc.,
ete., ad libitum.

Then Escott lounged up to them as they were
still deep in silks and laces. “One good thing out
of all this, Winny,” said he, “ there will be some-
body to talk to whose head is not like the ledger in
a draper’s shop. Grandmamma and Flora are no
more use, in the way of society, than these chairs.”

Finally, Mrs. Escott hailed her with joyful de-
Tight. ‘My dear Winny, do come and help me

with these calculations. JI have got my head quite
puzzled, and there can be only six places in this
corner of the dining-room, and we must have ten
people to sit there. No—or is it ten places and
six people? I can’t make it out; there, my dear,
take it. Poor Mr. Escott always used to say I had
no head for business.” And so Winny found herself.
appealed to on every side, and as she was one of
those people who enjoy a bustle, and can get
through a good deal of business in a short time,
she was soon spending the greater part of every
day at the Manor. Edward Anderson was out of
the way, having gone to Italy as temporary corre-
spondent for a daily paper, in consequence of the
illness of a friend of his, the regular special corre-
spondent of the paper; and he did not intend to
return until the Ist of December. He wrote very
regularly to Flora, but she did not inflict his letters
upon Winny; her whole mind appeared to be ab-
sorbed in trousseaux and wedding presents, and she
kept her raptures to herself.

Escott spent the first afternoon that Winny
passed at the Manor in her company; though he
was rather a hindrance than a heip, for neither he
nor his sister were good at practical arrangements.
The next day, however, he was absent; and Flora
said “T told him you would be busy with me: so
he is gone off to his dear friend’s.”

“Who is his dear friend ?” said Winny, uncon-
cernedly.

“Don’t you know? I thought you were in all
his secrets. Not that he told me,—but I found
it out!”

“ Who ?” said Winny, again.

“Mr. Algernon Smith. Nice company he keeps
there, I should think, by all accounts.”

“What do you mean?” said Winny, looking
Flora full in the face.

“Come, Winny, you need not look at me like
that. I don’t believe there is any thing very bad
there, or worse than most young men go in for.
I believe they play pretty high at écarté and loo,
and that sort of thing, accompanied with more
Curacao than is good for them. That isall I know,
at least, though people tell other pretty stories
too.”

“All!” said Winny, very indignantly. “Enough
too, I think, if it were true. But I don’t be-
lieve it.”

“Don’t, then. But you will find it true all the
same. My dear, what does it matter? I don’t
expect Escott to be any better than other people.
It is only because you know s0 little of life that it
seems so dreadful to you.”

“Then I hope I shall never know any more of
it,” said Winny, very indignantly.

“JT advise you to learn, for your own sake. My
dear Winny, if Nest had had the least knowledge