ridge!" she said.

"Lady Mabel."

"Call me Mabel. At any rate call me Mabel. If I have said anything to
offend you--I beg your pardon."

"I am not offended--but unhappy."

"If you are unhappy, what must I be? What have I to look forward to?
Give me your hand, and say that we are friends."

"Certainly we are friends," he said, as he gave her his hand.

"Who can tell what may come to pass?" To this he would make no
answer, as it seemed to imply that some division between himself and
Isabel Boncassen might possibly come to pass. "You will not tell any
one that I love you?"

"I tell such a thing as that!"

"But never forget it yourself. No one can tell what may come to
pass."

Lady Mabel at once went up to her room. She had played her scene, but
was well aware that she had played it altogether unsuccessfully.

CHAPTER LX

Lord Gerald in Further Trouble

When Silverbridge got back to the house he was by no means well
pleased with himself. In the first place he was unhappy to think that
Mabel was unhappy, and that he had made her so. And then she had told
him that he would not have dared to have acted as he had done, but
that her father and her brother were careless to defend her. He had
replied fiercely that a legion of brothers, ready to act on her
behalf, would not have altered his conduct; but not the less did he
feel that he had behaved badly to her. It could not now be altered.
He could not now be untrue to Isabel. But certainly he had said a
word or two to Mabel which he could not remember without regret. He
had not thought that a word from him could have been so powerful.
Now, when that word was recalled to his memory by the girl to whom it
had been spoken, he could not quite acquit himself.

And Mabel had declared to him that she would at once appeal to his
father. There was an absurdity in this at which he could not but
smile,--that the girl should complain to his father because he would
not marry her! But even in doing this she might cause him great
vexation. He could not bring himself to ask her not to tell her story
to the Duke. He must take all that as it might come.

While he was thinking of all this in his own room a servant brought
him two letters. From the first which he opened he soon perceived
that it contained an account of more troubles. It was from his
brother Gerald, and was written from Auld Reikie, the name of a house
in Scotland belonging to Lord Nidderdale's people.