he will not go out
to-night? I think she is looking tired--and--and overstrained. Do you
not think so?"

His tone was so full of anxiety, there was so sad and strained an
expression in his grave face, as he looked toward his young wife, who
was talking rather loudly and laughing in a way women will when there is
anything but laughter in their hearts, that Nell's sympathy went out to
him. It was as if suddenly she understood how much he cared for the
woman who was wife to him in little more than the name.

"Yes, yes! I will tell her," she said. "I am sure she will not go if you
do not wish it."

He smiled bitterly, and, for once dropping the cold reserve which
usually masked him, said, with sad bitterness:

"You think she considers my wishes so closely?"

Nell looked up at him, half frightened by the intensity of his
expression.

"Why--yes!" she faltered.

He smiled as bitterly as he had spoken; then his manner changed
suddenly, and his eyes became fixed on the flower in her dress.

"Where did you get that flower? Who----" he asked, almost sternly.

Nell's face flamed; then, ashamed of the uncalled-for blush, she
laughed.

"Sir Archie Walbrooke gave it me," she said.

The earl looked at her with surprise, which gradually changed to a keen
scrutiny, under which Nell felt her blush rising again. But she said
nothing, and, after a moment during which he seemed to be considering
deeply, he passed on, his hands clasped behind his tall figure, his head
bent.

Immediately the last guest had gone, Lady Wolfer went to her own
apartments. Nell stood in the center of the vast and now empty room, and
looked round her absently, and with that sense of some pending calamity
which we call presentiment.

Innocent of the world and its intrigues, as she was, she could not fail
to have seen that neither the earl nor the countess was happy; and that
the endless work and excitement in which they endeavored to absorb
themselves only left them dissatisfied and wretched.

She liked them both; indeed, she had grown very fond of Lady Wolfer, and
her heart ached for the woman who had striven to hide her unhappiness
behind the mask of a forced gayety and recklessness. For a moment, a
single moment, as she caught sight of the flower, a vague suspicion of
the danger which threatened the countess arose in Nell's mind; but she
put the suspicion from her with a shudder, for it was too dreadful to be
entertained.

Sometimes she went t