He looked round the hall admiringly.

"You have done wonders!" he said; "and in such a short time! I rode over
here from the hotel the other day, and imagined they would take at least
a month to finish. And is that the old drawing-room? Can it be possible!
It is charming! Ah, you have left the dining room untouched--that's
right."

Lady Angleford laughed.

"There is not an inch of it that has not been touched; but with reverent
hands, I hope. It is upstairs that we have done most. The bedrooms, you
will admit, wanted thorough renovating."

"Yes, yes," he said, as he walked beside her. "It's all perfect. It must
have cost a great deal of money."

She nodded.

"Oh, yes; but it does not matter, you know."

He glanced at her questioningly.

"It really does not," she said. "Have you any idea how rich you are,
Drake?"

He shook his head.

"I'm ashamed to say that I don't quite know how I stand. The lawyers
jawed about it the other day, and I did fully manage to understand that
my uncle had left me everything. Was that fair, countess?" he added
gravely.

"Yes," she replied simply. "He wanted to leave me all he could; but I
would not let him. You know that I have enough, and much more than
enough, of my own. So why should he leave me any more?"

Drake took her hand, and kissed it gratefully.

"You have been very good to me," he said, in a low voice. "Better than I
have any right to expect, or deserve."

"No," she said. "And there is no need of gratitude. I wanted to
atone----No, that's not the right word. I wanted to make up to you for
the trouble I had, all unconsciously, caused between you and him.
And--there was another reason, Drake. Don't get conceited; but I took a
fancy to my nephew the first time I saw him." She laughed softly. "And
just at present I have no other object in life than the attempt to make
him happy."

Drake suppressed a sigh.

Happy? Oh, Nell, Nell! How vain and foolish all this splendor, now he
had lost her!

"So you turned my rambling old place into a palace? Well, it was a
substantial attempt, and if I am not happy, I shall be the most mulish
and ungrateful of men. The place is perfect; it lacks nothing, I should
say," he added, as they descended to the hall again.

"Only a mistress," thought Lady Angleford; but she was too wise to say
so.

"You haven't told me who is here," he said, as he watched her pour out
the tea which had been laid in a windowed recess from which was a