him see how
much she had discerned. She would not even tell her husband, who, absent
from the place on most mornings, was too absorbed in the cares of his
own business to interest himself much in the affairs of others.

Now Elsie, being still of a romantic turn of mind, had taken it into
her head that Lily Mordaunt, if not actually the princess to be found in
poetic dramas whose rank was for a while kept concealed, was yet one of
the higher-born daughters of the ancient race whose name she bore,
and in that respect no derogatory alliance for Kenelm Chillingly. A
conclusion she had arrived at from no better evidence than the well-bred
appearance and manners of the aunt, and the exquisite delicacy of the
niece's form and features, with the undefinable air of distinction
which accompanied even her most careless and sportive moments. But Mrs.
Braefield also had the wit to discover that, under the infantine ways
and phantasies of this almost self-taught girl, there lay, as yet
undeveloped, the elements of a beautiful womanhood. So that altogether,
from the very day she first re-encountered Kenelm, Elsie's thought had
been that Lily was the wife to suit him. Once conceiving that idea, her
natural strength of will made her resolve on giving all facilities to
carry it out silently and unobtrusively, and therefore skilfully.

"I am so glad to think," she said one day, when Kenelm had joined her
walk through the pleasant shrubberies in her garden ground, "that you
have made such friends with Mr. Emlyn. Though all hereabouts like him so
much for his goodness, there are few who can appreciate his learning.
To you it must be a surprise as well as pleasure to find, in this quiet
humdrum place, a companion so clever and well-informed: it compensates
for your disappointment in discovering that our brook yields such bad
sport."

"Don't disparage the brook; it yields the pleasantest banks on which
to lie down under old pollard oaks at noon, or over which to saunter
at morn and eve. Where those charms are absent even a salmon could
not please. Yes; I rejoice to have made friends with Mr. Emlyn. I have
learned a great deal from him, and am often asking myself whether I
shall ever make peace with my conscience by putting what I have learned
into practice."

"May I ask what special branch of learning is that?"

"I scarcely know how to define it. Suppose we call it 'Worth-whileism.'
Among the New Ideas which I was recommended to study as