nk we had better not."

"Ah, you owe me a visit. Don't you remember that you were to have come
to Lockleigh once, and you never did?"

"Everything's changed since then," said Isabel.

"Not changed for the worse, surely--as far as we're concerned. To see
you under my roof"--and he hung fire but an instant--"would be a great
satisfaction."

She had feared an explanation; but that was the only one that occurred.
They talked a little of Ralph, and in another moment Pansy came in,
already dressed for dinner and with a little red spot in either cheek.
She shook hands with Lord Warburton and stood looking up into his
face with a fixed smile--a smile that Isabel knew, though his lordship
probably never suspected it, to be near akin to a burst of tears.

"I'm going away," he said. "I want to bid you good-bye."

"Good-bye, Lord Warburton." Her voice perceptibly trembled.

"And I want to tell you how much I wish you may be very happy."

"Thank you, Lord Warburton," Pansy answered.

He lingered a moment and gave a glance at Isabel. "You ought to be very
happy--you've got a guardian angel."

"I'm sure I shall be happy," said Pansy in the tone of a person whose
certainties were always cheerful.

"Such a conviction as that will take you a great way. But if it should
ever fail you, remember--remember--" And her interlocutor stammered a
little. "Think of me sometimes, you know!" he said with a vague laugh.
Then he shook hands with Isabel in silence, and presently he was gone.

When he had left the room she expected an effusion of tears from her
stepdaughter; but Pansy in fact treated her to something very different.

"I think you ARE my guardian angel!" she exclaimed very sweetly.

Isabel shook her head. "I'm not an angel of any kind. I'm at the most
your good friend."

"You're a very good friend then--to have asked papa to be gentle with
me."

"I've asked your father nothing," said Isabel, wondering.

"He told me just now to come to the drawing-room, and then he gave me a
very kind kiss."

"Ah," said Isabel, "that was quite his own idea!"

She recognised the idea perfectly; it was very characteristic, and she
was to see a great deal more of it. Even with Pansy he couldn't put
himself the least in the wrong. They were dining out that day, and after
their dinner they went to another entertainment; so that it was not till
late in the evening that Isabel saw him alone. When Pansy kissed him
before going to bed he ret