wo or three additional days. Mr. Power thought
he would take advantage of the halt to run up to Paris, leaving De
Stancy in charge of the ladies.

In more ways than in the illness of Charlotte this day was the harbinger
of a crisis.

It was a summer evening without a cloud. Charlotte had fallen asleep
in her bed, and Paula, who had been sitting by her, looked out into the
Place St. Denis, which the hotel commanded. The lawn of the square was
all ablaze with red and yellow clumps of flowers, the acacia trees were
brightly green, the sun was soft and low. Tempted by the prospect Paula
went and put on her hat; and arousing her aunt, who was nodding in the
next room, to request her to keep an ear on Charlotte's bedroom, Paula
descended into the Rue de Noyon alone, and entered the green enclosure.

While she walked round, two or three little children in charge of a
nurse trundled a large variegated ball along the grass, and it rolled
to Paula's feet. She smiled at them, and endeavoured to return it by a
slight kick. The ball rose in the air, and passing over the back of
a seat which stood under one of the trees, alighted in the lap of a
gentleman hitherto screened by its boughs. The back and shoulders proved
to be those of De Stancy. He turned his head, jumped up, and was at her
side in an instant, a nettled flush having meanwhile crossed Paula's
face.

'I thought you had gone to the Hotoie Promenade,' she said hastily. 'I
am going to the cathedral;' (obviously uttered lest it should seem that
she had seen him from the hotel windows, and entered the square for his
company).

'Of course: there is nothing else to go to here--even for Roundheads.'

'If you mean ME by that, you are very much mistaken,' said she testily.

'The Roundheads were your ancestors, and they knocked down my ancestors'
castle, and broke the stained glass and statuary of the cathedral,'
said De Stancy slily; 'and now you go not only to a cathedral, but to a
service of the unreformed Church in it.'

'In a foreign country it is different from home,' said Paula
in extenuation; 'and you of all men should not reproach me for
tergiversation--when it has been brought about by--by my sympathies
with--'

'With the troubles of the De Stancys.'

'Well, you know what I mean,' she answered, with considerable anxiety
not to be misunderstood; 'my liking for the old castle, and what it
contains, and what it suggests. I declare I will not explain to you
furthe