e laughed. "Elster's folly!"

"Yes. You know all this time that we--that I--" (Val thought he should
never flounder through this first moment, and did not remain an instant
in one place as he talked)--"have been going on so foolishly, I
was--almost as good as a married man."

"Were you?" said she, quietly. "Married to whom?"

"I said as good as married, Maude. You know I have been engaged for years
to Miss Ashton; otherwise I would have _knelt_ to ask you to become my
wife, so earnestly should I desire it."

Her calm imperturbability presented a curious contrast to his agitation.
She was regarding him with an amused smile.

"And, Maude, I have come now to ask you to release me. Indeed, I--"

"What's all this about?" broke in the countess-dowager, darting upon
the conference, her face flushed and her head-dress awry. "Are you two
quarrelling?"

"Val was attempting to explain something about Miss Ashton," answered
Maude, rising from the sofa, and drawing herself up to her stately
height. "He had better do it to you instead, mamma; I don't understand
it."

She stood up by the mantelpiece, in the ray of the lustres. They fell
across her dark, smooth hair, her flushed cheeks, her exquisite features.
Her dress was of flowing white crepe, with jet ornaments; and Lord
Hartledon, even in the midst of his perplexity, thought how beautiful she
was, and what a sad thing it was to lose her. The truth was, his senses
had been caught by the girl's beauty although his heart was elsewhere.
It is a very common case.

"The fact is, ma'am," he stammered, turning to the dowager in his
desperation, "I have been behaving very foolishly of late, and am asking
your daughter's pardon. I should have remembered my engagement to Miss
Ashton."

"Remembered your engagement to Miss Ashton!" echoed the dowager, her
voice becoming a little shrill. "What engagement?"

Lord Hartledon began to recover himself, though he looked foolish still.
With these nervous men it is the first plunge that tells; get that over
and they are brave as their fellows.

"I cannot marry two women, Lady Kirton, and I am bound to Anne."

The old dowager's voice toned down, and she pulled her black feathers
straight upon her head.

"My dear Hartledon, I don't think you know what you are talking about.
You engaged yourself to Maude some weeks ago."

"Well--but--whatever may have passed, engagement or no engagement, I
could not legally do it," returned the unhappy