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Rh won't be a party measure. Besides, being bored is one of the worst social crimes; it is an infectious disease, too. You catch it, if it is about, unless you are very strong. Ah! I should take away from everybody not only the time they don't enjoy, but the things they don't enjoy. Somebody would be the happier, I shouldn't wonder, for Aunt Elizabeth's teapot. Certainly, he ought to have it, then."

"Leave me something," said Maud.

"Yes, dear; you shall be left all you have got, and shall have heaps of things besides. You look tremendously happy. I hope you have been getting all sorts of nice things."

"I have been. And I'm going to get the nicest of all."

"Maud! Tell me at once! Why haven't you told me?"

"You really haven't given me an opportunity," remarked Maud.

"I give you one instantly. I will never open my lips again. I guess, of course, you are going to be married. How very nice! Women never begin to count until they are married. Quick! Who is it?"

"Charlie Lindsay. He is a cousin of Lord Brayton's. But I don't think you know him, though I think you met him once at Brayton."

"And why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because he didn't tell me before. He only told me yesterday. Nobody knows yet, except you. I had to tell you at once, Lucia, because"

Maud paused a moment; words were always difficult to her when she felt deeply.

"Because I knew you must often have wondered, dear, whether you had come between me and my happiness. I was such a little brute to you down at Littlestone, when I didn't instantly congratulate you when you told me you were engaged. I know you must often have causelessly reproached yourself. So I had to tell you at once."

Lucia came and knelt down by her friend.

"You darling!" she said. "It is sweet to be believed in like that. Maud, you are the best friend a woman ever had. Now"

Lucia, contrary to custom, found it hard to proceed.

"Now perhaps you will think me utterly heartless," she said, "but I will confess. I didn't reproach myself. It was inevitable; I couldn't help it. You can't help love, can you? You