nravelled all your mysteries, and read all your riddles
by--when shall I say?--by the end of the winter. Shall we not?"

"I do not know that I have got any mysteries."

"Oh, but you have! It is very mysterious in you to come and sit
here--with your back to us all--"

"Oh, Lord Lufton; if I have done wrong--!" and poor Lucy almost
started from her chair, and a deep flush came across her dark cheek.

"No--no; you have done no wrong. I was only joking. It is we who
have done wrong in leaving you to yourself--you who are the greatest
stranger among us."

"I have been very well, thank you. I don't care about being left
alone. I have always been used to it."

"Ah! but we must break you of the habit. We won't allow you to make a
hermit of yourself. But the truth is, Miss Robarts, you don't know us
yet, and therefore you are not quite happy among us."

"Oh! yes, I am; you are all very good to me."

"You must let us be good to you. At any rate, you must let me be so.
You know, don't you, that Mark and I have been dear friends since we
were seven years old. His wife has been my sister's dearest friend
almost as long; and now that you are with them, you must be a dear
friend too. You won't refuse the offer, will you?"

"Oh, no," she said, quite in a whisper; and, indeed, she could hardly
raise her voice above a whisper, fearing that tears would fall from
her tell-tale eyes.

"Dr. and Mrs. Grantly will have gone in a couple of days, and then we
must get you down here. Miss Grantly is to remain for Christmas, and
you two must become bosom friends." Lucy smiled, and tried to look
pleased, but she felt that she and Griselda Grantly could never be
bosom friends--could never have anything in common between them.
She felt sure that Griselda despised her, little, brown, plain, and
unimportant as she was. She herself could not despise Griselda in
turn; indeed she could not but admire Miss Grantly's great beauty and
dignity of demeanour; but she knew that she could never love her.
It is hardly possible that the proud-hearted should love those who
despise them; and Lucy Robarts was very proud-hearted.

"Don't you think she is very handsome?" said Lord Lufton.

"Oh, very," said Lucy. "Nobody can doubt that."

"Ludovic," said Lady Lufton--not quite approving of her son's
remaining so long at the back of Lucy's chair--"won't you give us
another song? Mrs. Robarts and Miss Grantly are still at the piano."

"I have sung away all