a dangerous foe, my boy. She has
poisoned the minds of Lucille and Alphonse against you. She has tried
to do the same by the Vicomtesse, and failed. She encouraged and
harboured Devar in order to annoy you. You and I start for Paris
to-morrow afternoon. Take my advice and ride over to Little Corton
to-morrow morning. See Isabella, and have it out with her. Talk to her
as you would to a man. Life would be so much simpler if people would
only recognise that sex is only a small part of it. Tell her you will
see her d----d before you marry her, or words to that effect. It is
all a matter of vanity or money. I'm going to bed. Good-night. My
apologies to the ladies."

He took his candle, and left me with half a cigar to smoke.

I was up betimes the next morning, and set off on horseback through
the quiet lanes soon after breakfast. Little Corton stands a mile
inland, and two miles nearer to Lowestoft than the old Manor House of
Hopton. Between the houses there is little pasture land, and I rode
through fresh green corn with the dew still on it. The larks--and they
are nowhere so numerous as on our sea-bound uplands--were singing a
blithe chorus. The world was indeed happy that May morning.

The sight of the homely red walls of Little Corton nestling among the
elms brought to my mind a hundred memories of the past days, wherein
Isabella's parents had ever accorded a welcome to myself--a
muddy-booted boy then, with but an evil reputation in the
country-side.

Isabella had gone out, they told me, but as she had taken neither hat
nor gloves, the servants opined that she could not be far away. I went
in search, and found her in the beech wood. She had taken her morning
letters there, and read them as she walked, her dress stirring the
dead leaves. She did not hear my footstep until I was close upon her.

"Ah! have you come to tell me that Lucille and Alphonse are engaged?"
she asked, without even bidding me good morning. In her eyes, usually
quiet and reserved, there was a look of great expectancy.

"No."

She folded her letters slowly, and as we walked side by side her quiet
eyes came slantwise to my face in a searching glance. She asked no
other question, however, and left the burthen of the silence with me.
There was a rustic seat near to us, and with one accord we went to it
and sat down. Isabella seemed to be breathless, I know not why, and
her bodice was stirred by the rapidity of her breathing. I noticed
again that