have found a mare's nest. You seem to forget that father is
sixty-five."

"Ah, yes, but he doesn't begin to realize the fact," said Lawrence.
"He thinks he is quite capable of acting like an ordinary man of half
his age. If you had tried to provide your friend with an easy prey,
you couldn't have gone a surer way to work."

Carrissima, however, remained still unconvinced. She walked home to
Grandison Square with the inclination to scoff at her brother's fears,
although it was true that she was beginning to wish that Bridget had
never crossed Colonel Faversham's path.




CHAPTER VI

CONCERNING BIRTHDAYS

"Carrissima!" said Colonel Faversham, as he rose from the
breakfast-table a day or two after her conversation with Lawrence and
Phoebe.

"Yes, father," she answered.

"I have been thinking that it is high time we asked Miss Rosser to dine
with us."

He was standing by the window holding the morning paper in his hands,