u talk, Hartledon, one might have supposed you cared for the
girl yourself," cried Lady Kirton; but her brow was smooth again, and her
tone soft as honey. "You should be more cautious."

"Cautious! Why so? I love and respect Anne beyond any girl on earth. But
that Val hastened to make hay when the sun shone, whilst I fell asleep
under the hedge, I don't know but I might have proposed to her myself,"
he added, with a laugh. "However, it shall not be my fault if Val does
not win her."

The countess-dowager said no more. She was worldly-wise in her way, and
thought it best to leave well alone. Sailing out of the room she left
them alone together: as she was fond of doing.

"Is it not rather--rather beneath an Elster to marry an obscure country
clergyman's daughter?" began Lady Maude, a strange bitterness filling her
heart.

"I tell you, Maude, the Ashtons are our equals in all ways. He is a proud
old doctor of divinity--not old, however--of irreproachable family and
large private fortune."

"You spoke of him as a tutor?"

"A tutor! Oh, I said he was in a measure our tutor when we were young. I
meant in training us--in training us to good; and he allowed George and
Val to read with him, and directed their studies: all for love, and out
of the friendship he and my father bore each other. Dr. Ashton a paid
tutor!" ejaculated Lord Hartledon, laughing at the notion. "Dr. Ashton an
obscure country clergyman! And even if he were, who is Val, that he
should set himself up?"

"He is the Honourable Val Elster."

"Very honourable! Val is an unlucky dog of a spendthrift; that's what Val
is. See how many times he has been set up on his legs!--and has always
come down again. He had that place in the Government my father got him.
He was attache in Paris; subsequently in Vienna; he has had ever so many
chances, and drops through all. One can't help loving Val; he is an
attractive, sweet-tempered, good-natured fellow; but he was certainly
born under an unlucky star. Elster's folly!"

"Val will drop through more chances yet," remarked Lady Maude. "I pity
Miss Ashton, if she means to wait for him."

"Means to! She loves him passionately--devotedly. She would wait for him
all her life, and think it happiness only to see him once in a way."

"As an astronomer looks at a star through a telescope," laughed Maude;
"and Val is not worth the devotion."

"Val is not a bad fellow in the main; quite the contrary, Maude. Of
course we all