loak from her, listened.

Falconer was playing the "Gloria in Excelsis."

"Oh, how happy I have been!" she murmured, half guiltily.

"And how happy you will be, Heaven grant it, dearest!" Drake murmured,
as he released her hand and she got down.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up
and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"

It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put
it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancee of my lord of Angleford, and
Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to
start.

Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered
sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his
violin with him.

"Don't tease her, Dick," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air
of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."

"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am--just a
little bit!"

"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has
to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But
she has nothing to be afraid of."

"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively. "If I were in
Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth
did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,
would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.
"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."

Nell put the cushion down reluctantly.

"It's a mean shame; you know I can't fight now."

"Though you have your war paint on," said Falconer, looking at her with
a half-sad, half-proud admiration and affection.

"It's not much of a war paint," said Nell, but contentedly enough. "It's
the dress I made for a party at Wolfer House--Dick, you know that the
Wolfers have had to go? Lord Wolfer's brother was ill. I am so sorry!
She would have made me feel less nervous, and rather braver. Yes, I'm
sorry! It's an old dress, and I'm afraid Drake's jewels must feel quite
ashamed of it," and she glanced at the pearls which he had given her a
day or two ago, and which gleamed softly on her white, girlish neck and
arms.

"You hear her complaining, Falconer!" said Dick, with mock sternness and
reproval. "You'd find it hard to believe that I offered to remain at
home and pop my dress suit, that she might buy herself fitting raiment
for this