CHAPTER XIV. 



'' What are you thinking about, Lavvy ? " 



The two ladies were enjoying the luxury of their after- 

 dinner coffee, combined with the beauties of a June evening, 

 on the terrace beneath the drawing-room windows at Cran- 

 ston Lodge. There had been silence for a considerable time, 

 and Lavvy from the depths of a well-cushioned basket chair, 

 with Johnnie upon her lap, had apparently been studying 

 the moon as it gradually ascended from gap to gap amidst 

 the spreading branches of a fine cedar. 



" It was down there a little time ago when we came out, 

 now it is up near the top." 



" What is ? " her aunt asked. 



'' The moon, of course, I have been watching it. Do you 

 believe in omens, auntie ? " 



" My dear child, I'm much too busy for that nonsense." 



*' But it's rather the fashion, isn't it ? I see the adver- 

 tisements of palmists and clairvoyants in the daily papers, and 

 I presume people go to them or they would not advertise." 



Miss Lavvy had been sedulously endeavouring to obtain 

 an insight into her aunt's views during dinner. She had 

 not been successful. More than once Miss Badsworth had 

 said '*but those are things which you will not understand," 

 whereupon Lavvy had come to the conclusion that her aunt 

 drew a line of distinction between dwellers in Cornwall and 

 dwellers in London. 



" There are plenty of silly people^ my dear ; they go to a 

 palmist out of curiosity, then they are constrained to go to 

 another to see if the prognostications tally, then, as they 

 generally do not, a third has to be consulted. There are 



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