3o6 The Real Charlotte. 



" That dress fits you awfully well. I like you better in 

 that than in anything." 



" Then I'd better take care and not get the juice on it," 

 Francie replied, with her mouth full of orange ; " lend me a 

 loan of your handkerchief." 



Lambert removed a bundle of letters and a guide-book 

 from his pocket, and finally produced the handkerchief. 



" Why, you've a letter there from Charlotte, haven't 

 you ? " said Francie, with more interest than she had yet 

 shown, " I didn't know you had heard again from her." 



" Yes, I did/' said Lambert, putting the letters back in 

 his pocket; ^' I wish to goodness w^e hadn't left our address 

 at the Charing Cross Hotel. People might let a man alone 

 when he's on his honeymoon." 



*' What did she say ? " inquired Francie lightly. '^ Is she 

 cross ? The other one she wrote was as sweet as syrup, and 

 ' Love to dear Francie ' and all." 



" Oh; no, not a bit," said Mr. Lambert, who had been 

 secretly surprised and even slightly wounded by the fortitude 

 with which Miss Mullen had borne the intelligence of his 

 second marriage, " but she's complaining that my colts have 

 eaten her best white petticoat." 



''You may give her one of my new ones," suggested 

 Francie. 



" Oh yes, she'd like that, wouldn't she ? " said Lambert 

 with a chuckle ; ^' she's so fond of you^ y'know ! " 



" Oh, she's quite friendly with me now, though I know 

 you're dying to make out that she'll not forgive me for 

 marrying you," said Francie, flinging her last bit of orange- 

 peel at the Apollo ; '^ you're as proud as Punch about it. I 

 believe you'd have married her, only she wouldn't take 



you 



I » 



" Is that your opinion ! " said Mr. Lambert with a smile 

 that conveyed a magnanimous reticence as to the facts of 

 the case ; " you're beginning to be jealous, are you ? I 

 think I'd better leave you at home the day I go over to talk 

 the old girl into good humour about her petticoat ! " 



In his heart Mr. Lambert was less comfortable than the 

 tone of his voice might have implied ; there had been in 

 the letter, in spite of its friendliness and singular absence of 

 feminine pique, an allusion to that three hundred pound#= 



