oked as if she would like to throw the knot and its wearer into the
river, in the wake of the wager boats. After one or two false starts,
they got off at last.

"Do you think it seemly, this flirtation of yours with Lord Hartledon?"

Anne turned in amazement. The face of the old dowager was close to her;
the snub nose and rouged cheeks and false flaxen front looked ready to
eat her up.

"I have no flirtation with Lord Hartledon, Lady Kirton; or he with me.
When I was a child, and he a great boy, years older, he loved me and
petted me as a little sister: I think he does the same still."

"My daughter tells me you are counting upon one of the two. If I say to
you, do not be too sanguine of either, I speak as a friend; as your
mother might speak. Lord Hartledon is already appropriated; and Val
Elster is not worth appropriating."

Was she mad? Anne Ashton looked at her, really doubting it. No, she was
only vulgar-minded, and selfish, and utterly impervious to all sense of
shame in her scheming. Instinctively Anne moved a pace further off.

"I do not think Lord Hartledon is appropriated yet," spoke Anne, in a
little spirit of mischievous retaliation. "That some amongst his present
guests would be glad to appropriate him may be likely enough; but what if
he is not willing to be appropriated? He said to Mr. Elster, last week,
that they were wasting their time."

"Who's Mr. Elster?" cried the angry dowager. "What right has he to be
at Hartledon, poking his nose into everything that does not concern
him?--what right has he, I ask?"

"The right of being Lord Hartledon's brother," carelessly replied Anne.

"It is a right he had best not presume upon," rejoined Lady Kirton.
"Brothers are brothers as children; but the tie widens as they grow up
and launch out into their different spheres. There's not a man of all
Hartledon's guests but has more right to be here than Val Elster."

"Yet they are brothers still."

"Brothers! I'll take care that Val Elster presumes no more upon the tie
when Maude reigns at--"

For once the countess-dowager caught up her words. She had said more than
she had meant to say. Anne Ashton's calm sweet eyes were bent upon her,
waiting for more.

"It is true," she said, giving a shake to the purple tails, and taking a
sudden resolution, "Maude is to be his wife; but I ought not to have let
it slip out. It was unintentional; and I throw myself on your honour,
Miss Ashton."

"But it is not true?"