re?" Lady Mabel asked her friend,
Lord Silverbridge.

"I don't know. I am not."

"Lady Cantrip seems to think a great deal about him."

"I dare say. I don't."

"Your father seems to like him."

"That's possible too. They're going back to London together in the
governor's carriage. My father will talk high politics all the way,
and Popplecourt will agree with everything."

"He isn't intended to--to--? You know what I mean."

"I can't say that I do."

"To cut out poor Frank."

"It's quite possible."

"Poor Frank!"

"You had a great deal better say poor Popplecourt!--or poor governor,
or poor Lady Cantrip."

"But a hundred countesses can't make your sister marry a man she
doesn't like."

"Just that. They don't go the right way about it."

"What would you do?"

"Leave her alone. Let her find out gradually that what she wants
can't be done."

"And so linger on for years," said Lady Mabel reproachfully.

"I say nothing about that. The man is my friend."

"And you ought to be proud of him."

"I never knew anybody yet that was proud of his friends. I like him
well enough, but I can quite understand that the governor should
object."

"Yes, we all know that," said she sadly.

"What would your father say if you wanted to marry someone who hadn't
a shilling?"

"I should object myself,--without waiting for my father. But
then,--neither have I a shilling. If I had money, do you think I
wouldn't like to give it to the man I loved?"

"But this is a case of giving somebody else's money. They won't make
her give it up by bringing such a young ass as that down here. If my
father has persistency enough to let her cry her eyes out, he'll
succeed."

"And break her heart. Could you do that?"

"Certainly not. But then I'm soft. I can't refuse."

"Can't you?"

"Not if the person who asks me is in my good books. You try me."

"What shall I ask for?"

"Anything."

"Give me that ring off your finger," she said. He at once took it
off his hand. "Of course you know I am in joke. You don't imagine
that I would take it from you?" He still held it towards her. "Lord
Silverbridge, I expect that with you I may say a foolish word without
being brought to sorrow by it. I know that that ring belonged to your
great-uncle,--and to fifty Pallisers before."

"What would it matter?"

"And it would be wholly useless to me, as I could not wear it."

"Of course it would be too big," said he, replacing the ring on his