nd sunshine of my life. To be able to do some little thing to
help you is the highest earthly joy that I can ever know. When you are
married, Sir Edgar, your wife will take all this happiness from me."

"I do not see why," I replied, dryly, inwardly wishing myself safe in
Clare's room.

"Ah! you do not understand--men never can understand the love of women.
Wives, above all, are so very jealous. Fancy, if ever I wanted to make
your tea, or get anything ready for you, she would be angry, and I
should be wretched."

"In that case you must make tea for Clare instead of me."

"If I am anywhere near you, I must always attend to you before every one
and anything in the wide world," she said, impulsively.

"You are making very sure that my wife will not like you," I said. "What
if I have no wife?"

She shook her head gravely.

"You will marry, Sir Edgar. All the Trevelyans of Crown Anstey marry,
as becomes the head of a grand old family. You will marry, and your wife
will be the happiest woman in the world."

"I may be a modern Bluebeard, Coralie."

"No; you will not. Ah, me! To go away and leave Crown Anstey--to leave
you--I shall feel like Eve driven forth from Paradise to die."

My hand lay carelessly on the back of a chair. She bent down swiftly and
laid her burning lips upon it. I would not tell--my face flames as I
write the word--but unless you know all, reader, you will not understand
my story.

She laid her warm, soft lips upon it! And though I did not love her--did
not even trust her--the magnetic touch thrilled every nerve. I took my
hand away.

"Ah, cousin!" she said, looking at me with those dark, dangerous eyes,
"you love even your dog Hector better than me."

She was so near to me that the perfume from her flowers reached me. It
was by a desperate effort I broke the spell.

"This room is insufferably warm," I said; "I am going into the garden.
You had better see if Clare wants anything, Coralie."

So, like many another man, I ran away, not knowing how to meet my fair
adversary on equal grounds.

CHAPTER VIII.

Walking among the whispering leaves, the conclusion I came to was that I
must take some precaution, or Coralie d'Aubergne would marry me whether
I was willing or not. A siren is a faint shadow compared with a
beautiful woman resolved to win a man whether he wants winning or not.

Why not risk my fate and ask Agatha to be my wife? There was a faint
hope in my heart that she wo