e
seemed ever to arouse.

"Do not be hasty in judging," said the elder woman with a tolerance
that few possess. "Isabella may have cause for complaint against him,
or she may be suffering from wounded vanity. A woman's vanity is the
rudder that shapes her course through life. If it be injured, the
course will be a crooked one. Isabella is a disappointed woman--one
sees it in her face. Of the two I prefer to trust Dick Howard, and
wish that you could do the same. We know nothing of what may have
passed between them, and can therefore form no opinion. One person
alone knows, and that is John Turner. He is coming to stay here with
Dick in a fortnight. Ask him to judge."

Madame continued thus to plead my cause, while I, no doubt, slept
peacefully enough under the same roof, for I have never known what it
is to lie awake with my troubles. One damning fact the Vicomtesse
could not disguise, namely, that she was for the moment dependent upon
me.

"I would rather," said Lucille, "that it had been Alphonse."

To which Madame made no reply. She was a wise woman in that she never
asked a confidence of her daughter, in whose happiness, I know, the
interest of her life was centred. It is a great love that
discriminates between curiosity and anxiety.

Lucille, however, wanted no help in the management of her life or the
guidance of her heart, and made this clear to Madame. Indeed, she had
of late begun to exercise somewhat of a sway over her mother, and
appeared to be the ruling spirit; for youth is a force in itself. For
my own part, however, I have always inclined to the belief that it is
the quiet member of the family who manages and guides the household
from the dim background of social obscurity. And although Madame de
Clericy appeared to be mastered by her quick-witted, quick-spoken
daughter, it was usually her will and not Lucille's that gained the
victory in the end.

Lucille defended her absent friend with much spirit, and fought that
lady's battles for her, protesting that Isabella had been ill used,
and the victim of an unscrupulous adventurer. She doubtless said hard
things of me, which have now been forgotten, for the lady who took my
heart so quickly, and never lost her hold of it, was at this time
spontaneous in thought and word, and quick to blame or praise.

[Illustration: WHEN MADAME WAS AT HER PRAYERS, A SWIFT, WHITE FORM
HURRIED INTO THE ROOM, AND HELD HER FOR A MOMENT IN A QUICK EMBRACE.]

Mother and