wn young man;
it was only when they were alone together that he sat by glumly and
silently, without a smile and without a word!

She did not take it into account how surfeited the man was with his
honeycomb. Herbert Pryme, individually, was nothing much to him; but he
came as the sight of a distant sail is to a shipwrecked mariner. It is
doubtful, indeed, whether, under the circumstances, Maurice would not
have been equally delighted to have met his tailor or his bootmaker.
After dinner was over the two men went out and smoked their cigars
together. This was a fresh offence to Mrs. Kynaston; usually she enjoyed
an evening stroll with her husband after dinner, but when he asked her to
come out with him on this occasion, she refused, shortly and
ungraciously.

"No, thank you; if you and Mr. Pryme are going to smoke, I could not
possibly come; you know that I hate smoke."

Poor Herbert was about to protest that nothing would induce him to smoke;
but Maurice passed his arm hurriedly through his.

"Come along, then, and have a cigar in the garden," he said, with
scarcely concealed eagerness; he felt like a schoolboy let out of school.

Helen went up to her bedroom, and sat sulkily by her open window, looking
over the lake on to the mountains. Long after it was dark she could see
the two red specks of their cigars wandering about like fire-flies in the
garden, and could hear the crush of the rough gravel under their
footsteps, and the low murmur of their voices as they talked.

"You are coming into Meadowshire, are you not?" asked Maurice, ere they
parted.

Herbert shook his head.

"Not to the Millers?"

"No, I am afraid I shall never be asked to Shadonake again," answered the
younger man, gloomily.

"Why, I thought you and Beatrice--forgive me--but is it not the case?"

"Her parents have stopped all that, Kynaston."

"But I am sure Beatrice herself will never let it stop; I know her too
well," said Maurice, cheerily.

"There are laws in connection with minors," began Mr. Pryme, solemnly.

"Fiddlesticks!" was Maurice's rejoinder. "There are no laws to prevent
young women falling in love, or the world would not be in such a
confounded muddle as it frequently is. Don't be downhearted, Pryme; you
stick to her, and it will all come right; and look here, if they won't
ask you to Shadonake, I ask you to Kynaston; drop me a line, and come
whenever you like--as soon as you get home."

"You are exceedingly kind; I s