JACK’S CONDESCENSION, 99

on our way to the house, that he shouldn’t
mind a similar excursion some afternoon
soon, by which I am led to understand that
the expedition has not been altogether a
failure. He is also condescending enough
to compliment me on my rowing powers,
which he says are not at all bad for a
girl!

However I do not intend to weary my
readers with an unnecessary account of all we
did in Father’s absence, so I shall go straight
on to the day of the show; suffice it to say
that the change of the roses had not been de-
tected, and that all who saw them thought
them exceedingly fine and far superior to
Mr. Monckton’s!

Aunt and Miss M. of course were the only
people who knew of the affair at all besides
Mother, and they evidently told her, as not
one word on the subject was ever said to
me by any of them. The morning of the
eventful day rose cloudless and hot as ever,
and we literally gasped with horror as we
sat at breakfast, at the thought of what was