luttering somewhere in her pretty throat, but which was
not destined to be spoken to-night; and it was she who made Phoebe's
music quite a simple performance, attended with little excitement and no
danger. Phoebe was the only one who was grateful to her, and perhaps even
Phoebe could have enjoyed the agitations of the evening better had Janey
been away. As it was, these agitations were all suppressed and
incipient; they could not come to anything; there were no hairbreadth
escapes, no breathless moments, when the one pursued had to exercise her
best skill, and only eluded the pursuer by a step or two. Janey, with
all her senses about her, hearing everything, seeing everything,
neutralized all effort on the part of the lovers, and reduced the
condition of Ursula and Phoebe to one of absolute safety. They were all
kept on the curb, in the leash, by the presence of this youthful
observer; and the evening, though full of a certain excitement and
mixture of happiness and misery, glided on but slowly, each of the young
men outdoing the other in a savage eagerness for Janey's bed-time.

"Do you let her sit up till midnight every night?" said Reginald, with
indignation.

"Let me sit up!" cried Janey, "as if I was obliged to do what she tells
me!"

Ursula gave a little shrug to her pretty shoulders, and looked at the
clock.

"It is not midnight yet; it is not nine o'clock," she said, with a sigh.
"I should have thought papa would have come home before now. Can he be
staying at the Hall all night?"

Just then, however, there was the well-known ring at the bell, and
Ursula ran downstairs to see after her father's supper. Why couldn't
Janey make herself useful and do that, the little company thought
indignantly and with one accord, instead of staying here with her sharp
eyes, putting everybody out? Mr. May's little dinner, or supper, served
on a tray, was very comfortable, and he ate it with great satisfaction,
telling Ursula that he had, on the whole, spent a pleasant day.

"The Dorsets were kind, as they always are, and Mr