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“Pray forgive me, Miss Freer,” said the young man; “and pray believe I am the very last fellow on earth to—“

“To say anything to hurt any one else,” suggested Marion, good-humouredly. “Yes, I assure you you are quite forgiven, Captain Berwick.”

But the young soldier did not forget the little incident, nor did it tend to lessen the favourable impression left on his mind by Mrs. Archer’s pretty friend.

As Mrs. Berwick took leave she expressed a hope that they should “see a great deal of Mrs. Archer.”

“You must always come to us on Thursdays,” she said. “By-the-by, what day are you going to choose for receiving your friends?”

It had not occurred to Mrs. Archer that any such formal arrangement would be necessary. But Mrs. Berwick and Sophy hastened to explain that every one had an “at home “day at Altes. The English society being limited, people found it necessary to make the most, of it; and, as Sophy said, “It was very provoking to spend an afternoon in calling on one’s friends, and to find them all out. And then, on getting home, to find that half of them had been calling on us.”