e some inquiries
concerning this man Devar before you ask him to your house again?"

"Are you afraid that Mr. Devar will interfere with your own private
schemes?" she replied, in that tone of semi-banter which she often
assumed towards me when we were alone.

"Thanks--no. I am quite capable of taking care of myself, so far as
Mr. Devar is concerned. It is--if you will believe it--in regard to
yourself that I have misgivings. I look upon myself as in some sort
your protector."

She looked at me, and gave a sudden laugh.

"A most noble and competent protector!" she said, in her biting way,
"when you are always fortune-hunting, or else in France taking care of
beauty in distress."

She glanced across the room towards Lucille in a manner strangely
cold.

"Why do you encourage this man?" I asked, returning to the subject
from which Isabella had so easily glided away. "He is not a gentleman.
Seems to me the man is a--dark horse!"

"Well, you ought to know," said Isabella, with a promptness which made
me reflect that I was no match for the veriest schoolgirl in a warfare
of words.

[Illustration: "A MOST NOBLE AND COMPETENT PROTECTOR!" SHE SAID, IN
HER BITING WAY, "WHEN YOU ARE ALWAYS FORTUNE-HUNTING, OR ELSE IN
FRANCE TAKING CARE OF BEAUTY IN DISTRESS."]

"I did not understand," continued Isabella, looking at me under her
lashes, "that you looked upon yourself as my protector. It is rather
an amusing thought!"

"Oh! I do not pretend to competence," answered I; "I know you to be
cleverer, and quite capable of managing your own affairs. If there was
anything you wanted, no doubt you could get it better without my
assistance than with it."

"No doubt," put in Isabella, with a queer curtness.

"But my father looked upon you rather in the light I mentioned. He was
very fond of you, and thought much of your welfare, and--"

"You think the burden should be hereditary," she interrupted again,
but she smiled in a manner that softened the acerbity of her words.

"No, Dick," she said, "you are better at your fortune-hunting."

"It is not for myself," I said too hurriedly; for Isabella had always
the power to make me utter hasty words, involving me in some quarrel
in which I invariably fared badly.

"Who knows?"

"You think that if the fortune fell into my hands, the temptation
would be too strong for a poor man like myself?" I inquired.

"Poor by choice!" The words were hardly audible, for Isabella was
busying h