"All right!" whispered Fanny in reply, and whipped out on to the balcony.
"Here's Aunt Maitland wants to know if you ever leave off smoking;" and
she threw a most aggressive manner into the query.

The big man replied, composedly, "Tell her I do--at meals and prayers;
but I always _sleep_ with a pipe in my mouth--heavily insured!"

"Well, then, you mustn't; for she has something very particular to say to
you when you've done smoking."

"Something particular! That means something disagreeable. Tell her I
shall be smoking all day to-day."

Fanny danced into the room and said, "He says he shall be smoking all
day, _under the circumstances."_

Miss Maitland gave this faithful messenger the look of a basilisk, and
flounced to her own room. The young ladies instantly stepped out on the
balcony, and got one on each side of Harrington, with the feminine
instinct of propitiation; for they felt sure the enemy would tell, soon
or late.

"What does the old cat want to talk to me about?" said Harrington,
lazily, to Fanny.

It was Zoe who replied:

"Can't you guess, dear?" said she, tenderly--"our misconduct." Then she
put her head on his shoulder, as much as to say, "But we have a more
lenient judge here."