Richard had slighted and offended the little lady, and was to be asked whether he did not repent such conduct toward his cousin; not to be asked whether he had forgotten to receive his birthday kiss from her; for, if he did not choose to remember that, Miss Clare would never remind him of it, and to-night should be his last chance of a reconciliation.

Thus she meditated, sitting on a stair, and presently heard Richard's voice below in the hall, shouting for supper.
"Master Richard has returned," old Benson the butler tolled out intelligence to Sir Austin.
"Well ?" said the baronet.
"He complains of being hungry," the butler hesitated, with a look of solemn disgust.
"Let him eat." Heavy Benson hesitated still more as he announced that the boy had called for wine.

It was an unprecedented thing.

Sir Austin's brows were portending an arch, but Adrian suggested that he wanted possibly to drink his birthday, and claret was conceded.
The boys were in the vortex of a partridge-pie when Adrian strolled in to them.

They had now changed characters.