lding on to his coat, and looking up into his
face.

The sensation this gave General Boldero was more than novel, it was
extraordinary. He was a tolerably old man, he had been twice married,
and had always lived surrounded by the gentler sex, but it is safe to
say he had never been nestled against in his life. He looked down, he
looked up, and then he looked down again.

"Deuced pretty little rogue!" he muttered.

"They think Mr. Custance doesn't know one of us from another, and that
it is the most presumptuous cheek on my part to imagine he has ever
given me a thought," proceeded Leonore, still intent upon her task;
"they think he is far, far above all sublunary affairs----"

"Rubbish. He is no more above them than I am. I don't say Custance isn't
well enough, and I have a--a sort of regard for him. But you have the
sense to see what your sisters have not----"

"That one simply can't be mulcted at every turn." She had heard
"mulcted" on his own lips on more than one occasion; it should serve as
a weapon to shield Sue now. Sue, still mute and motionless, cringed
behind, but Leo had an intuition that she breathed relief.

"That's it; that's it exactly," cried the general, delighted, and again
he appended a mental comment: "Deuced clever little rat!" "Well, I'm
glad to find there is some explanation of what really sounded a most
outrageous statement;" he turned to depart, now in excellent humour. "I
must say, however, that you would do well to see that the dining-room
door is shut when next you are amusing yourself with that kind of
tomfoolery. Any of the servants coming along had only to step inside and
listen behind the screen, and there would have been a fine tittle-tattle
among them--aye, and it wouldn't have stopped there. It would have been
all through the village that Miss Boldero----"

"Oh, dear, how funny!" laughed Leo. She had felt Sue's fingers clutch
her dress behind. She stepped with her father's step, as he moved to
pass, and made a face at him.

"There--there--you absurd monkey!" but the monkey was pushed aside with
a gentle hand, and marching off with all the honours of the field in his
own esteem, the general never once looked at Sue.

CHAPTER VII.

"I HAVE LOST SOMETHING THAT I NEVER HAD."

Throughout the foregoing scene Leonore had evinced a quickness of
perception and a delicacy beyond what might have been expected from one
so young and volatile,--but directly she was alone a revul