"I never heard such a scheme in my life. To take the boy away from his schooling----"
"No; his school has just broken up for some weeks. Several cases of small-pox; so it is considered best. Roy has not been in the way of any who have sickened; therefore he is all right. We mean to have him with us."
Colonel Baron did not wish to betray that he had strenuously opposed the plan, and had given in with reluctance to his wife's entreaties.
"I thought the two never had been parted?"
"That has been folly. It is time such fantasies should be broken through. Roy must go to a boarding-school in the autumn; and this will pave the way."
Mrs. Baron lifted a lace handkerchief to her eyes.
"My dear heart--a school five miles off. You will think nothing of it when the time arrives," urged the Colonel, who till then had gone against his own better judgment, keeping the boy at home and allowing him to attend a day-school. He had won his wife's consent to the boarding-school in the autumn only that morning, by yielding to her wish that Roy should go to Paris. The Colonel's graceful wife was something of a spoilt child in her ways; and resolute as he could show himself in other directions, he seldom had the will to oppose her seriously.
"Indeed, I should say so too," struck in Mrs. Bryce. "You don't desire to turn him into a nincompoop; and between you and Molly, my dear Harriette, he hasn't a chance. School will make a man of him. And what's to become of Molly?"
[Illustration: THE MESSAGE OF THE MARGUERITES.
GIRL'S OWN PAPER. ORFORD SMITH, L^{ D.} S^{ t.} Albans. LONDON.]
Mrs. Baron was still gently dabbing her eyes with the square of lace, and the Colonel answered--
"My wife's step-mother wishes to have Molly in Bath for a visit. She will travel thither with Polly early next week."
"Too much gadding about. Not the sort of way I was brought up, nor you either. But everything is turned upside-down in these days. And you've persuaded Captain Ivor to go too?"
"And you're quite content to put yourselves into the clutches of that miserable Boney!"
"My dear madam, the First Consul does not wage war on unoffending travellers. Even supposing that hostilities should break out sooner than may reasonably be expected, we have then but to hasten home."