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178 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

" No, I do not ; I think he is ill ; and if you had been me, and Philip had been Walter, I should have been so certain of it that I should have made immediate inquiries, in person or by telegram or both. And, what puzzles me, is that you take it all as quietly as if you had been married five years, and one day your husband had not come home to dinner, and had not sent you word that he was detained."

" I suppose it was such a strain upon me to get him to propose that the reaction has left me limp and played out, as that American lady said the other day."

" She said * wilted/ my dear," Jenny rejoined ; " but I am sorry to hear you speak as if you had given Mr. For- syth positive encouragement to propose."

" Now don't be a hypocrite, Jenny ; you know I did, and that it was in its way quite a little conspiracy on all our parts, and that Walter was in it as bad as any of us, the darling."

" Dolly ! " said Jenny reprovingly, but at the same time linking her arm within her sister's and leading her into the morning room where they generally amused them- selves with needlework and novels, mostly novels. " You are trying to be cynical because you feel annoyed with Philip ; I know you are ; as if it was necessary for you to try and force his hand ! "

" It might not have been necessary," said Dolly, " but we did it."

" Oh, Dolly, you are in a wicked temper."

" Not at all. I know that what you did was out of your great love for me, and that Walter had no other object ; and I will not deny that Philip seemed to like it, that he was very devoted and very eloquent, and that he proposed to me with fervent empresscment ; but for all that we had prepared the little trap for him, had we not, dear?"