ind."

"No hints, no watching, but just as if I went there of my own accord."

"That's exactly the thing."

"Very well; and now, pray, what good is all this going to do to you,
my boy?"

"Well, just this; I can talk to you about her every evening, and you
can tell me how she looks, and what she says, and all that sort of
thing, you know."

"By Jove!"

"And you'll cheer my heart, old fellow."

"Heavens and earth! old boy, you don't seem to think that this is
going to be no end of a bore."

"I know it, old man; but then, you know, I'm desperate just now."

"By Jove!"

And Hawbury, uttering this exclamation, relapsed into silence, and
wondered over his friend's infatuation.

On the following day when Dacres came in he found that Hawbury had
kept his word.

"Great bore, old fellow," said he; "but I did it. The old lady is an
old acquaintance, you know. I'm going there to-morrow again. Didn't
see any thing to-day of the child-angel. But it's no end of a bore,
you know."

CHAPTER XI.

FALSE AND FORGETFUL.

The day when Lord Hawbury called on Lady Dalrymple was a very eventful
one in his life, and had it not been for a slight peculiarity of his,
the immediate result of that visit would have been of a highly
important character. This slight peculiarity consisted in the fact
that he was short-sighted, and, therefore, on a very critical occasion
turned away from that which would have been his greatest joy, although
it was full before his gaze.

It happened in this wise:

On the day when Hawbury called, Ethel happened to be sitting by the
window, and saw him as he rode up. Now the last time that she had seen
him he had a very different appearance--all his hair being burned off,
from head and cheeks and chin; and the whiskers which he had when she
first met him had been of a different cut from the present appendages.
In spite of this she recognized him almost in a moment; and her heart
beat fast, and her color came and went, and her hands clutched the
window ledge convulsively.

[Illustration: "'IT'S HE!' SHE MURMURED."]

"It's _he_!" she murmured.

Of course there was only one idea in her mind, and that was that he
had heard of her presence in Naples, and had come to call on her.

She sat there without motion, with her head eagerly bent forward, and
her eyes fixed upon him. He looked up carelessly as he came along, and
with his chin in the air, in a fashion peculiar to him, which,
by-the-way,