"It's as plain as a pikestaff," agreed her husband. "And she told
Charlie five years for bigamy, and when she's telling Flora's Fortune she
sees 'im in convict's clothes. How she does it I can't think."

"It's a gift," said Mrs. Dowson, briefly, "and I do hope that Flora is
going to act sensible. Anyhow, she can let Ben Lippet come and see her,
without going upstairs with the tooth-ache."

"He can come if he likes," said Flora; "though why Charlie couldn't have
'ad the motor-car and 'im the five years, I don't know."

Mr. Lippet came in the next evening, and the evening after. In fact, so
easy is it to fall into habits of an agreeable nature that nearly every
evening saw him the happy guest of Mr. Dowson. A spirit of resignation,
fostered by a present or two and a visit to the theatre, descended upon
Miss Dowson. Fate and her mother combined were in a fair way to
overcome her inclinations, when Mr. Foss, who had been out of town on a
job, came in to hear the result of her visit to the fortune-teller, and
found Mr. Lippet installed in the seat that used to be his.

At first Mrs. Dowson turned a deaf ear to his request for information,
and it was only when his jocularity on the subject passed the bounds of
endurance that she consented to gratify his curiosity.

"I didn't want to tell you," she said, when she had finished, "but you
asked for it, and now you've got it."

"It's very amusing," said Mr. Foss. "I wonder who the dark young man in
the fancy knickers is?"