any question."

"She is er--refreshingly young!" replied Gervase in his soft, drawling
voice. He took no notice of the charge made against himself, but went
on peeling his fruit with an air of pensive exhaustion, at which the two
elder men exchanged glances of amusement. He looked at once so young,
so healthy, and so prosperous, that this affectation of depression had
somewhat of a ludicrous air to men who knew the world and had
acquaintance with real and pressing anxieties. Ned Talbot looked across
the table at the handsome youngster, and heaved a sigh to the memory of
the good old days when he also was happy enough to invent troubles, and
philosophise darkly concerning unknown woes. He had come south with a
heart heavy with care, yet with an expectation of comfort which had
taken away half the sting, but that hope had been doomed to
disappointment, and on the morrow he must return to his work with an
added fear in his heart. Could it be that he had been mistaken in
Lilias? As a man eating a soft bloomy peach jars his teeth suddenly
against its stone, so had Ned found himself confronted with a hardness
in his _fiancee's_ nature which had brought with it a shock of
disillusionment. Surely, surely, if a girl were ever to be sweet and
sympathetic to the man whom she had promised to marry, it was when he
was threatened by misfortune; but Lilias evidently refused to believe in
his version of affairs, and cherished a grudging conviction that he was
sacrificing her to romantic scruples. He had talked, and pleaded, and
reasoned--it was like hitting one's self against a wall. She never
swerved from her position, her voice never lost its tone of studied
toleration; and now he sat, the poor fellow! listening dreamily to the
conversation between the other two men, too weary and depressed to take
any active share in it himself.

When a movement was made towards the drawing-room half an hour later,
however, Lilias was discovered leaning against the lintel of the window,
looking so young, so sweet and fragile, that every chivalrous instinct
rose up in her defence. Such a girl was not made to endure hardships,
Ned reflected tenderly. The man who was lucky enough to own her should
be prepared to carry all burdens on his own shoulders. He was ready!
Oh yes; if Lilias would but love him faithfully, he would work for her
with the strength of twenty men. He was eager to tell her so, to
apologise for his harshness of the afte