Of course, they had no objection to their wilful relative doing as
she liked, but did not conceal their amazement at her bad taste.

"Take the carriage, dear! You'll find it around out there
somewhere," drawled the easy-tempered aunt. "And let Thomas come
back for us. He will be in time an hour from this."

"Would it be an unpardonable infraction of etiquette if we were to
walk home?" questioned Rosa of Mr. Chilton, when they were out of
Mr. Mason's hearing. "The night is very mild."

"But your feet. Are they not too lightly shod for the pavement?"

"I left a pair of thick gaiters in the dressing-room, which I wore
in the carriage."

"Then I will be answerable for the breach of etiquette, should it
ever be found out," was the reply, and Rosa disappeared into the
tiring-roem to equip herself for the walk.

It was a lovely night for December--moonlighted and bland as
October, and neither manifested a disposition to accelerate the
saunter into which they had fallen at their first step beyond the
portico. Rosa dropped her rattling tone, and began to talk seriously
and sensibly of the scene they had left, the flatness of fashionable
society after the freshness of novelty had passed from it, and her
preference for home life and tried friends.

"Yet I always rate these the more truly after a peep at a different