had long ago warned her to put it away, and to
follow her up to dress.

He carried the portrait to the light. 'M. Piper,' he read. 'That little
woman! That mouth is in better drawing than I could have thought her
guilty of.'

'Oh! those are Lord St. Erme's touches,' said unconscious Annette.
'He met Miss Martindale taking it to be framed, and he improved it
wonderfully. He certainly understood the little face, for he even wrote
verses on it.'

Here Violet entered, and Annette had to hurry away for her bonnet. Percy
stood looking at the drawing.

'So, Johnnie has a new admirer,' he said. Violet was sorry that he
should hear of this; but she laughed, and tried to make light of it.

'I hear he is in Germany.'

'Yes; with his sister and their aunt.'

'Well,' said Percy, 'it may do. There will be no collision of will, and
while there is one to submit, there is peace. A tigress can be generous
to a puppy dog.'

'But, indeed, I do not think it likely.'

'If she is torturing him, that is worse.'

Violet raised her eyes pleadingly, and said, in a low, mournful tone: 'I
do not like to hear you speak so bitterly.'

'No,' he said, 'it is not bitterness. That is over. I am thankful to
have broken loose, and to be able to look back on it calmly, as a past
delusion. Great qualities ill regulated are fearful things; and though
I believe trials will in time teach her to bring her religious principle
to bear on her faults, I see that it was an egregious error to think
that she could be led.'

He spoke quietly, but Violet could not divest herself of the impression
that there was more acute personal feeling than he was aware of. In the
Ellesmere gallery, he led them to that little picture of Paul Potter's,
where the pollard willows stand up against the sunset sky, the evening
sunshine gleaming on their trunks, upon the grass, and gilding the backs
of the cows, while the placid old couple look on at the milking, the
hooded lady shading her face with her fan.

'There's my notion of felicity,' said he.

'Rather a Dutch notion,' said Violet.

'Don't despise the Dutch,' said Percy. 'Depend upon it, that respectable
retired burgomaster and his vrow never had words, as we Brogden folk
say.'

'I think you would find that very stupid,' said Violet.

'Not I,' said Percy. 'When I want to pick a quarrel, I can get it
abroad.'

'When?' said Annette, smiling.

'Yes, I like to keep my teeth and claws sharpened,' said Percy; but