castle. Yes, one cannot help admiring. They are like beautiful
flowers that have blossomed up from the valleys and the plains below.
But who tilled the land, that these should grow there on every height?
Are you not forced to think of the toiling wretches who labored and
labored to carry stone by stone up the crest of the hill? They did not
get much enjoyment out of the grandeur and picturesqueness of the
castles."

"But they gave that labor for their own protection," Lady Evelyn said,
with a smile. "The great lords and barons were their protectors."

"The great lords and barons said so, at least," said the girl, without
any smile at all, "and I suppose the peasantry believed them; and were
quite willing to leave their vineyards and go and shed their blood
whenever the great lords and barons quarrelled among themselves."

"Well said! well said!" Brand exclaimed, quickly; though, indeed, this
calm, gentle-eyed, self-possessed girl was in no need of any champion.

"I am afraid you are a great Radical, Miss Lind," said Lady Evelyn.

"Perhaps it is your English air, Lady Evelyn," said the girl, with a
smile.

Lord Evelyn's mother, notwithstanding her impassive, unimaginative
nature, soon began to betray a decided interest in this new guest, and
even something more. She was attracted, to begin with, by the singular
beauty of the young Hungarian lady, which was foreign-looking, unusual,
picturesque. She was struck by her perfect self-possession, and by the
ease and grace of her manner, which was rather that of a mature
woman than of a girl of nineteen. But most of all she was interested in
her odd talk and opinions, which she expressed with such absolute
simplicity and frankness. Was it, Lady Evelyn asked herself, that the
girl had been brought up so much in the society of men--that she had
neither mother nor sisters--that she spoke of politics and such matters
as if it the most natural thing in the world for women, of whatever
age, to consider them as of first importance?

But one chance remark that Natalie made, on the impulse of the moment,
did for the briefest possible time break down that charming
self-confidence of hers, and show her--to the wonderment of the English
girls--the prey of an alarmed embarrassment. George Brand had been
talking of patriotism, and of the scorn that must naturally be felt for
the man who would say of his country, "Well, it will last my time. Let
me enjoy myself when I can. What do I ca