ad sent to desire that it might
be brought to him. And now he found his occasion.

"Come and play a game of billiards," he said to Isabel, as the three
girls with the other ladies were together in the drawing-room. She
got up very slowly from her seat, and very slowly crept away to the
door. Then she looked round as though expecting the others to follow
her. None of them did follow her. Mary felt that she ought to do so;
but, knowing all that she knew, did not dare. And what good could she
have done by one such interruption? Lady Mabel would fain have gone
too;--but neither did she quite dare. Had there been no special
reason why she should or should not have gone with them, the thing
would have been easy enough. When two people go to play billiards, a
third may surely accompany them. But now, Lady Mabel found that she
could not stir. Mrs. Finn, Mrs. Boncassen, and Miss Cassewary were
all in the room, but none of them moved. Silverbridge led the way
quickly across the hall, and Isabel Boncassen followed him very
slowly. When she entered the room she found him standing with a cue
in his hand. He at once shut the door, and walking up to her dropped
the butt of the cue on the floor and spoke one word. "Well!" he said.

"What does 'well' mean?"

"The three months are over."

"Certainly they are 'over.'"

"And I have been a model of patience."

"Perhaps your patience is more remarkable than your constancy. Is not
Lady Mabel Grex in the ascendant just now?"

"What do you mean by that? Why do you ask that? You told me to wait
for three months. I have waited, and here I am."

"How very--very--downright you are."

"Is not that the proper thing?"

"I thought I was downright,--but you beat me hollow. Yes, the three
months are over. And now what have you got to say?" He put down his
cue, and stretched out his arms as though he were going to take her
and hold her to his heart. "No;--no; not that," she said laughing.
"But if you will speak, I will hear you."

"You know what I said before. Will you love me, Isabel?"

"And you know what I said before. Do they know that you love me? Does
your father know it, and your sister? Why did they ask me to come
here?"

"Nobody knows it. But say that you love me, and everyone shall know
it at once. Yes; one person knows it. Why did you mention Lady
Mabel's name? She knows it."

"Did you tell her?"

"Yes. I went again to Killancodlem after you were gone, and then I
told her."