mrs. bode had come that afternoon to bosquith with the well-defined intention of receiving an invitation to return and spend a week. mrs. winstone, who was about to be deserted by mrs. macmanus, and was growing more bored daily, now that the novelty of playing hostess for the duke of kingsborough was wearing thin, and meditated a round of visits to more amusing houses at no distant date, was delighted at the advent of the vivacious american and needed no subtle arts of suggestion to invite her for the following monday. the children were included in the invitation, but emily begged to be permitted to visit a school friend at present in london, and mrs. bode returned with the enamoured dan.

she had been astounded, then amused at his plan to abduct young mrs. france, but found herself forced to appeal to his reason. he had stormed about the hotel sitting-room, calling her names for the first time in his life: “snob,” “coward,” “heartless woman,” “no sister.” mrs. bode, whose good-nature was one of her assets, and immune to unspoken insults long since, refused to be offended, wisely repressed her desire to laugh, pretended sympathy, did not once allude to the fact that he was merely fifteen, and talked to him as a wise woman ever talks to a man whose common sense is for the moment in abeyance.

“come back and get her when you are twenty-one,” she advised. “by that time you will be a full partner in the business, and father can’t balk you. you know how romantic he is! and you also know his old-fashioned prejudice against divorce, his puritanical morals generally. a nice figure we should both cut in his eyes if we returned with the runaway wife of an englishman who hadn’t given her the ghost of an excuse. i happen to know france is mad about her. i also know she hasn’t a cent of her own, and she looks as proud as they make ’em. do you fancy she’d live on our charity for six years? not she. even if she were mad enough to come, she’d go to work?—”

“work? my wife work? she work?”

“there you are!” and, as a matter of fact, this argument clinched the matter. the moment he was alone with julia after his arrival at bosquith he informed her that within twenty-four hours after he was made a partner in the firm, and his own master, he should start for england—should use the ten thousand for that purpose instead of going on a spree. he should take her at once to the quickest place in america for divorce, and then marry her. julia was much too feminine to laugh, vowed never to forget him, and during his stay at the castle devoted herself to his entertainment. he showed no disposition to be sentimental, and as it was a novel experience, and he was always bright and amusing, besides telling her much of his strange continent, she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

young tay, aside from his natural jealousy, took an immediate and profound dislike to france, a sensation inspired in most moderately decent men by that reprobate, even when he was on his good behavior. dan went so far as to avoid his vicinity lest he punch him. as for france, he was little more than aware of the youth’s presence in the castle, and thought julia damned good-natured to talk to him. that they spent their days riding over the moors, or along the cliffs, or sitting in the various romantic nooks of garden and ruin, he had, of course, no suspicion, or he might have concluded that his wife carried her notions of hospitality a bit too far.

when young tay left, julia kissed him good-by, gave him a lock of her hair, intimated that six years would seem an eternity, promised to write once a week, then cruelly forgot him, save when his postcards arrived.

at first they came in a shower, then straggled along for a year, finally ceased after an apologetic one from college. julia answered a few of them, but boys of fifteen, no matter how clever and companionable, cannot hope to make a very deep impression on nineteen; and julia had much to drive him from her mind, in any case. she rarely saw mrs. bode during that lady’s frequent visits to london, and, had she thought about the matter at all, would have ticketed tay as one of the few amusing episodes in her life, and assumed that he had gone out of it forever. a young wife, revolting in profound distaste from her husband, and at the same time high-minded and fastidious, is the most unimpressionable of human beings. all men are alike hateful to her.