iness this afternoon
with a man who lives in your direction."

She assented a little stiffly--but with an inward thrill. His words and
manner seemed suddenly to make the situation unmistakable. Among the
books it had been for the moment obscured.

He rang for his own servant, and gave directions about the maid. Then
they went downstairs that Marcella might say good-bye.

Miss Raeburn bade her guest farewell, with a dignity which her small
person could sometimes assume, not unbecomingly. Lady Winterbourne held
the girl's hand a little, looked her out of countenance, and insisted on
her promising again to come to Winterbourne Park the following Tuesday.
Then Lord Maxwell, with old-fashioned politeness, made Marcella take his
arm through the hall.

"You must come and see us again," he said smiling; "though we are such
belated old Tories, we are not so bad as we sound."

And under cover of his mild banter he fixed a penetrating attentive look
upon her. Flushed and embarrassed! Had it indeed been done already? or
would Aldous settle it on this walk? To judge from his manner and hers,
the thing was going with rapidity. Well, well, there was nothing for it
but to hope for the best.

On their way through the hall she stopped him, her hand still in his
arm. Aldous was in front, at the door, looking for a light shawl she had
brought with her.

"I should like to thank you," she said shyly, "about the Hurds. It will
be very kind of you and Mr. Raeburn to find them work."

Lord Maxwell was pleased; and with the usual unfair advantage of beauty
her eyes and curving lips gave her little advance a charm infinitely
beyond what any plainer woman could have commanded.

"Oh, don't thank me!" he said cheerily. "Thank Aldous. He does all that
kind of thing. And if in your good works you want any help we can give,
ask it, my dear young lady. My old comrade's grand-daughter will always
find friends in this house."

Lord Maxwell would have been very much astonished to hear himself making
this speech six weeks before. As it was, he handed her over gallantly to
Aldous, and stood on the steps looking after them in a stir of mind not
unnoted by the confidential butler who held the door open behind him.
Would Aldous insist on carrying his wife off to the dower house on the
other side of the estate? or would they be content to stay in the old
place with the old people? And if so, how were that girl and his sister
to get on? As for himself