r own cheeks flush, and she
saw by chance, not by direct look, that Lionel's face had turned a deep
scarlet. Jealous of her! She continued to admire the coral some little
time longer, and then resigned it to him with a smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Verner. I am fond of these marine curiosities. We had a
good many of them at the rectory. Mr. Cust's brother was a sailor."

Lionel could not remember the time when she had called him "Mr. Verner."
It was right, however, that she should do so; but in his heart he felt
thankful for that sweet smile. It seemed to tell him that she, at any
rate, was heart-whole, that she certainly bore him no resentment. He
spoke freely now.

"You are not looking well, Lucy--as we have been upon the subject of
looks."

"I? Oh, I have had another cold since the one Jan cured. I did not try
his remedies in time, and it fastened upon me. I don't know which barked
the most--I or Growler."

"Jan says he shall have Growler here," remarked Sibylla.

"No, Sibylla," interposed Lionel; "Jan said he should like to have
Growler here, if it were convenient to do so, and my mother would spare
him. A medical man's is not the place for a barking dog; he might attack
the night applicants."

"Is it Jan's dog?" inquired Lucy.

"Yes," said Lionel. "I thought you knew it. Why, don't you remember,
Lucy, the day I--"

Whatever reminiscence Lionel may have been about to recall, he cut it
short midway, and subsided into silence. What was his motive? Did Lucy
know? She did not ask for the ending, and the rest were then occupied,
and had not heard.

More awkward pauses--as in these visits where the parties do not
amalgamate is sure to be the case, and then Lady Verner slightly bowed
to Lucy, as she might have done on their retiring from table, and rose.
Extending the tips of her delicately-gloved fingers to Sibylla, she
swept out of the room. Decima shook hands with her more cordially,
although she had not spoken half a dozen words during the interview, and
Sibylla turned and put her hand into Lucy's.

"I hope we shall be intimate friends," she said. "I hope you will be our
frequent guest at Verner's Pride."

"Thank you," replied Lucy. And perhaps the sudden flush on her face
might have been less vivid had Lionel not been standing there.

He attended them to the carriage, taking up his hat as he passed through
the vestibule; for really the confined space that did duty for hall in
Dr. West's house did not deserv