eed not despair, there is always old Caspar to
fall back upon."

Ethel pursed up her lips, looked at her brother very hard, and shook her
curly head significantly.

"Do you mean to say," cried the doctor, "that she doesn't appreciate her
father?"

"I don't think she understands him. And how can she appreciate him if
she doesn't understand?"

Maurice laid down his knife and fork, and simply glared at his sister.
He was an excitable young man, and had a way of expressing himself
sometimes in reprehensibly strong language. On this occasion, he said--

"Do you mean to tell me that that girl is such a born idiot and fool
that she can't see what a grand man her father is?"

Ethel nodded. But her eyes brimmed over with mirth.

"Then she deserves to be shut up for life in the convent she came from!"
said the doctor. "I wouldn't have believed it! Is she blind? Doesn't she
_see_ what an intellect that man has? Can't she understand that his
abilities are equal to those of any man in Europe?"

"We all know your admiration for Mr. Brooke, dear," said Ethel, saucily.
"You had better go and expound your views to Lesley. Perhaps she and her
father would get on better then."

Maurice was silent. He sat and looked aghast at the notion thus
presented to him. That Caspar Brooke--his friend, his mentor, almost his
hero--should not have been able to live with his wife was bad enough!
That his daughter should not admire him seemed to Maurice a sort of
profanation! Heavens, what did the girl mean? The mother might have been
an aristocratic fool; but the girl?--she looked intelligent enough!
There must be a misapprehension somewhere; and it occurred to Maurice
that it might be his duty to remove it.

Maurice Kenyon was a born knight-errant. When he said that a thing
wanted doing, his heart ached until he could do it. A Celtic strain of
blood in him showed itself in the heat of his belief, the impetuosity of
his actions. In Ethel this strain had taken an artistic turn; but the
same nature that urged her to dramatic representation urged her brother
to set to work vehemently on righting anything that he thought was
wrong. There never was a man who hated more than he to leave a matter
_in statu quo_.

Although Ethel said no more concerning Lesley's misunderstanding of her
father, Maurice was haunted by the echo of her remarks. He could not
conceive how a girl possessed of ordinary faculties could possibly
misprize her father's gifts.