will do
anything you and Drake wish."

"What a dutiful child!" exclaimed the countess, banteringly. "And though
you won't come and stay at the Hall, you will come up and see us very
often, to lunch and tea and----"

"When Mr. Falconer can spare me," said Nell quietly.

"Yes. And about him, dear. We talked of him last night, and his future.
That will be Drake's special care. He, too, owes him a big debt, and he
feels it. Mr. Falconer is a genius, and the world must be made to know
it before very long. And your brother, dear; you will let him come up to
the Hall?"

Nell laughed softly.

"You are thinking of everything," she said. "Even of Dick. Oh, yes,
he'll come. Dick isn't a bit shy; but he thinks more of his electric
machines than anything else on earth just at present."

"I know," said the countess, laughing. "But we must try and lure him
from them now and again. I am sure we shall all like him, for he is
wonderfully like you. Now, about the dinner, dear. Shall we say this day
week?"

"So soon!" said Nell.

"Yes; it mustn't be later, for this wretched trial is coming on; the
assizes are quite close, you know; and Drake will have to be there as
witness. My dear, I'm glad they did not get off with the diamonds! You
little thought that night, when you saved Drake's life, and prevented
the man getting away, that you were fighting for your own jewels."

"Mine!" said Nell.

The countess laughed.

"Why, yes, you dear goose! Are they not the Angleford diamonds, and will
they not soon be yours?"

Nell blushed and looked a little aghast.

"I--I haven't realized it all yet," she said. "Ah! I wish Drake
were--just Drake Vernon! I am afraid when I think----"

The countess smiled and shook her head.

"There is no need to be afraid, my dear," she said shrewdly. "You will
wear the Angleford coronet very well and very gracefully, if I am not
mistaken, because you set so little store by it. And now here comes
Drake! It is good of him to give me so long with you. Give me a kiss
before he comes--he won't begrudge me that surely! Ah, you happy girl!"

Drake drove up in a dogcart.

"I can't get down; the mare won't stand"--he hadn't brought a groom, for
excellent reasons. "Please tell Nell to get her things on as quickly as
she can!" he said to the countess as she came out.

Nell looked doubtful.

"I will go upstairs first," she said. But Falconer was asleep, and when
she came down she had her outdoor things on.