somewhat slighted on both sides--or, if I may say so, less thought of on
both sides than he deserved. Had Lady Ongar remained in town, as she
ought to have done, he would have solaced himself, and at the same time
have revenged himself upon Florence, by devoting some of his spare hours
to that lady. It was Lady Ongar's sudden departure that had made him
feel that he ought to rush at once into marriage. Now he had no
consolation, except that of complaining to Mrs. Burton, and going
frequently to the theatre. To Mrs. Burton he did complain a great deal,
pulling her worsteds and threads about the while, sitting in idleness
while she was working, just as Theodore Burton had predicted that he
would do.

"I won't have you so idle, Harry," Mrs. Burton said to him one day. "You
know you ought to be at your office now." It must be admitted, on behalf
of Harry Clavering, that they who liked him, especially women, were able
to become intimate with him very easily. He had comfortable, homely ways
about him, and did not habitually give himself airs. He had become quite
domesticated at the Burtons' house during the ten weeks that he had been
in London, and knew his way to Onslow Crescent almost too well. It may,
perhaps, be surmised correctly that he would not have gone there so
frequently if Mrs. Theodore Burton had been an ugly woman.

"It's all her fault," said he, continuing to snip a piece of worsted
with a pair of scissors as he spoke. "She's too prudent by half."

"Poor Florence!"

"You can't but know that I should work three times as much if she had
given me a different answer. It stands to reason any man would work
under such circumstances as that. Not that I am idle, I believe. I do as