De Burgh, as he placed a chair for
Mrs. Ormonde and took her cloak.

"To be sure. Didn't you guess who she was?"

"Mr. De Burgh guessed a good deal, but he did not guess my identity,"
said Katherine, handing her a cup of tea.

"What! Were you playing at cross questions and crooked answers?"

"Something of that sort," he returned, and changed the subject by asking
if they had heard how Errington's father was.

"Better, I suppose, for Mr. Errington has returned. He met us when we
were in Melford Woods."

"I dare say he met Alice and Miss Brereton, then," said Mrs. Ormonde;
"they were riding in that direction."

"Lady Alice will be taken care of, then," said Katherine, and taking her
hat she went away, seeing that Mrs. Ormonde was quite ready to absorb
the conversation.

"So that is Katherine Liddell," said De Burgh, looking after her,
regardless of Mrs. Ormonde's declaration that she was going to scold
him.

"Yes. Is she not like what you expected?"

"Expected? I did not expect anything; but she isn't a bit like what you
described."

"How so? Did I say too much?"

"Yes, a great deal too much, but the wrong way."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, you talked as if she was a regular gushing school-girl, ready to
swallow any double-barrelled compliment one chose to offer, whereas she
is a finely developed woman, by Jove! with brains too, or I am much
mistaken. Why, my charming little friend, she is older in some ways than
you are."

"Oh, nonsense. You need not flatter _me_."

"It's not flattery, it's--"

The arrival of the riding party with the addition of Errington prevented
him from finishing his sentence.

CHAPTER XVI.

HANDLING THE RIBBONS.

De Burgh was told off to take Katherine in to dinner that day and the
next, and bestowed a good deal of his attention on her during the
evening. He rather amused her, for he was a new type to her. The men she
had met during her sojourn on the Continent were chiefly polished French
and Italians, whose softness and respectful manner to women were perhaps
exaggerated, and a sprinkling of diplomatic and dilettante Englishmen.
De Burgh's style was curiously--almost roughly--frank, yet there was an
unmistakable air of distinction about him. He seemed not to think it
worth while to take trouble about anything, yet he could talk well when
by chance a topic interested him, Katherine would have been very dull
had she not perceived that he was attracted by her. She