to name to her.

   Matters, therefore, in her opinion, stood thus:—

   Philippa was the victim of a baronet's wiles.

   When off with the new love, she had promptly returned and passed a considerable time under the roof of the old love; that is, of myself.

   Then I had suddenly arrived with this eligible prospective daughter-in-law at my mother's high-priced hotel, and I kept insisting that we should at once migrate, we three, to foreign parts—the more foreign the better.

   I had especially dilated on the charms of the scenery and the salubrity of the climate in

    countries where there was no extradition treaty with England

   .

   Even if there was nothing in these circumstances to arouse the watchful jealousy of a mother, it must be remembered that, as a

    chaperon

   , she did seem to come a little late in the day.

   'As you have lived together so long without me,' some parents would have observed, 'you can do without me altogether.'

   None of these trivial objections occurred to my mother.

   She was good-nature itself.

   Just returned from a professional tour on the Continent (she was, I should have said, in the profession herself, and admirably filled the

    exigeant

   part of Stout Lady in a highly respectable exhibition), my mother at once began to pack up her properties and make ready to accompany us.

   Never was there a more good-humoured

    chaperon

   . If one of us entered the room where she was sitting with the other, she would humorously give me a push, and observing 'Two is company, young people, three is none,' would toddle off with all the alacrity that her figure and age permitted.

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