as men always are, you'd see her in her true colours. Do shake
yourself a bit, do! Oh, you silly, silly man!'

Again she burst into ringing laughter, throwing herself backwards
and forwards, and at last covering her face with her hands. Sidney
looked annoyed, but the contagion of such spontaneous merriment in
the end brought another smile to his face. He moved his head in sign
of giving up the argument, and, as soon as there was silence, turned
to the object of his visit.

'I see you've still got the card in the window. I shouldn't wonder
if I could find you a lodger for those top-rooms.'

'And who's that? No children, mind.'

Sidney told her what he could of the old man. Of Jane he only said
that she had hitherto lived with the Hewetts' landlady, and was now
going to be removed by her grandfather, having just got through an
illness. Dire visions of infection at once assailed Mrs. Byass;
impossible to admit under the same roof with her baby a person who
had just been ill. This scruple was, however, overcome; the two
rooms at the top of the house--unfurnished--had been long
vacant, owing to fastidiousness in Mr. and Mrs. Byass, since their
last lodger, after a fortnight of continuous drunkenness, broke the
windows, ripped the paper off the walls, and ended by trying to set
fire to the house. Sidney was intrusted with an outline treaty, to
be communicated to Mr. Snowdon.

This discussion was just concluded when Mr. Samuel Byass presented
himself--a slender, large-headed young man, with very light hair