“My dear auntie, of course I shall go,” said Austin, drawing on his gloves.  “Why you should wish me to stay, I cannot imagine.  What on earth makes you so insistent that I should meet these friends of yours?”

“It’s for your own good, you ungrateful little creature,” replied Aunt Charlotte, quivering.  “You know what I’ve always said.  You require more companionship of your own age, you want to mix with other young people instead of wasting and dreaming your time away as you do, and it was for your sake, for your sake only, that I asked our friends——­”

“Oh, no, auntie, it wasn’t.  You told me so yourself,” Austin reminded her.  “You told me distinctly that it was for your own pleasure and not for mine that you were going to invite them.  So that argument won’t do.  And you were perfectly right.  If you find intellectual joy in the society of Mrs Cobbledick and Shock-headed Peter——­”

“Shock-headed Peter?  Who in the name of fortune is that?” interrupted Aunt Charlotte, amazed.

“One of the MacTavish enchantresses—­Florrie, I think, or perhaps Aggie.  How am I to know?  Everybody calls her Shock-headed Peter.  But as I was saying, if you find happiness in the society of such people, invite them by all means.  I only ask you not to cram them down my throat.  I wouldn’t mind the others so much, but the MacTavishes I bar.  I will not have them forced upon me.  I detest them, and I’ve no doubt they despise me.  We simply bore each other out of our lives.  There!  Let that suffice.  I’m very fond of you, auntie, and I don’t want anyone else.  Do you perfectly understand?”

“I shall evidently never understand you, Austin,” replied Aunt Charlotte.  “You have treated me shockingly, shockingly.  And now you leave me in the most heartless way with all these people on my hands——­”

“Then why did you insist on inviting them?” put in Austin.  “I entreated you not to.  I’d have gone down on my knees to you, only unfortunately I’ve only one.  And when I entreated you for the last time, you said you wouldn’t listen to another word.  I saw that further appeal was useless, so I was compelled by you yourself to play for my own safety.  So now good-bye, dear auntie.  It’s time I was off.  Cheer up—­you’ll all enjoy yourselves much more without an awkward unsympathetic creature like me among you, see if you don’t.  And you can make any excuse for me you like,” he added with a smile as he left the room.  Aunt Charlotte remained transfixed.

“I suppose he must go his own gait,” she muttered, as she picked up her knitting again.  “There’s no use in trying to force him this way or that; if he doesn’t want to do a thing he won’t do it.  Of course what he says is true enough—­I did let him choose the date, and I did ask these people because I thought it would be good for him, and I did insist on doing so when he begged me not to.  Well, I’m hoist with my own petard this time, though I wouldn’t confess as much to him if my life depended on it.  But the trickery of the little wretch!  It’s that I can’t get over.”