she does want to keep Ovid out of my
way!"

"Because she doesn't like you?" said Miss Minerva. "Is that the only
reason you can think of?"

"What other reason can there be?"

The governess summoned her utmost power of self-restraint. She needed
it, even to speak of the bare possibility of Carmina's marriage to Ovid,
as if it was only a matter of speculative interest to herself.

"Some people object to marriages between cousins," she said. "You
are cousins. Some people object to marriages between Catholics and
Protestants. You are a Catholic--" No! She could not trust herself to
refer to him directly; she went on to the next sentence. "And there
might be some other reason," she resumed.

"Do you know what that is?" Carmina asked.

"No more than you do--thus far."

She spoke the plain truth. Thanks to the dog's interruption, and to the
necessity of saving herself from discovery, the last clauses of the Will
had been read in her absence.

"Can't you even guess what it is?" Carmina persisted.

"Mrs. Gallilee is very ambitious," the governess replied: "and her son
has a fortune of his own. She may wish him to marry a lady of high
rank. But--no--she is always in need of money. In some way, money may be
concerned in it."

"In what way?" Carmina asked.

"I have already told you," Miss Minerva answered, "that I don't know."

Before the conversation could proceed, they were interrupted by the
appearance of Mrs. Gallilee's maid, with a message from the schoolroom.
Miss Maria wanted a little help in her Latin lesson. Noticing Carmina's
letter, as she advanced to the door, it struck Miss Minerva that the
woman might deliver it. "Is Mrs. Gallilee at home?" she asked. Mrs.
Gallilee had just gone out. "One of her scientific lectures, I suppose,"
said Miss Minerva to Carmina. "Your note must wait till she comes back."

The door closed on the governess--and the lady's-maid took a liberty.
She remained in the room; and produced a morsel of folded paper,
hitherto concealed from view. Smirking and smiling, she handed the paper
to Carmina.

"From Mr. Ovid, Miss."

CHAPTER XVII.

"Pray come to me; I am waiting for you in the garden of the Square."

In those two lines, Ovid's note began and ended. Mrs. Gallilee's
maid--deeply interested in an appointment which was not without
precedent in her own experience--ventured on an expression of sympathy,
before she returned to the servants' hall. "Please to excuse me, Miss;