To live on the verge of such a--a
tragi-comedy, is it? and not be aware of it, I do pity you."

"The only wonder is how you knew it," said her brother, in a tone of
repression.

"I! Oh, it is a fine thing to be a long-eared little pitcher when one's
elders imagine one hears nothing but what is addressed to oneself. There
I sat, supposed to be at my lessons, when the English letters came in,
and I heard papa communicating to mamma how he had a letter from old
Lord Keith--not this one but one older still--the father of him--about
his son's exchange--wanted papa to know that he was exemplary and all
that, and hoped he would be kind to him, but just insinuated that leave
was not desirable--in fact it was to break off an affair at home. And
then, while I was all on fire to see what a lover looked like, comes
another letter, this time to mamma, from Lady Alison something, who
could not help recommending to her kindness her dear nephew Colin, going
out broken-hearted at what was feared would prove a fatal accident,
to the dearest, noblest girl in the world, for so she must call Ermine
Williams. Ermine was a name to stick in one's memory if Williams was
not, and so I assumed sufficient certainty to draw it all out of dear
Lady Temple."

"She knows then?" said Rachel, breathlessly, but on her guard.

"Know? Yes, or she could hardly make such a brother of the Colonel. In
fact, I think it is a bit of treachery to us all to keep such an affair
concealed, don't you?" with a vivid flash out of the corner of her eyes.

"Treachery not to post up a list of all one's--"

"One's conquests?" said Bessie, snatching the word out of her brother's
mouth. "Did you ever hear a more ingenious intimation of the number one
has to boast?"

"Only in character," calmly returned Alick.

"But do not laugh," said Rachel, who had by this time collected herself;
"if this is so, it must be far too sad and melancholy to be laughed
about."

"So it is," said Alick, with a tone of feeling. "It has been a mournful
business from the first, and I do not see how it is to end."

"Why, I suppose Colonel Colin is his own master now," said Bessie; "and
if he has no objection I do not see who else can make any."

"There are people in the world who are what Tennyson calls 'selfless,'"
returned Alick.

"Then the objection comes from her?" said Rachel, anxiously.

"So saith Lady Temple," returned Bessie.

They were by this time in Mackarel Lane. Rachel wo