TJie Real Charlotte. 239 



Coppard, that trifling and summary act which was his 

 ostensible mission in going to Mi^fianUe's house; and this, 

 the last letter from him, had been merely a few lines of 

 excuse for not having written before, ending with regret that 

 his leave would be up in a fortnight, as he had had a rip- 

 ping time on old Coppard's moor, and the cubbing was just 

 beginning, a remark which puzzled Francie a good deal, 

 though its application was possibly clearer to her than the 

 writer had meant it to be. Inside the letter was a photo- 

 graph of himself, that had been done at Hythe, and was 

 transferred by Francie from letter to letter, in order that it 

 might never leave her personal keeping ; and, turning from 

 the barren trivialities over which she had been poring, 

 Francie fell to studying the cheerful, unintellectual face 

 therein portrayed above the trim glories of a mess jacket. 



She was still looking at it when she heard the expected 

 wheels ; she stufifed the letter back into her pocket, then 

 remembering the photograph, pulled the letter out again 

 and put it into it. She was putting the letter away for the 

 second time when Christopher came in, and in her guilty 

 self-consciousness she felt that he must have noticed the 

 action. 



" How did you get in so quickly ? " she said, with a con- 

 fusion that heightened the general effect of discovery. 



" Donovan was there and took the trap," said Christopher, 

 "and the hall door was open^ so I came in." 



He sat down, and neither seemed certain for a moment 

 as to what to say next. 



" I didn't really expect you to come, Mr. Dysart," began 

 Francie, the colour that the difficulty with the photograph 

 had given her ebbing slowly away ; " you have a right to 

 be tired as well as us, and Charlotte being upset that way 

 and all, made it awfully late before you got home, I'm 

 afraid." 



" I met her a few minutes ago, and was glad to see that 

 she was all right again," said Christopher perfunctorily; 

 " but certainly if I had been she, and had had any option 

 in the matter, I should have stayed at home this morning." 



Both felt the awkwardness of discussing Miss Mullen, 

 but it seemed a shade less than the awkwardness of ignor- 

 ing her. 



