esperately difficult, but Phyllis must
not be allowed to ruin her own life's happiness and another's also to
ease the burden.

But what a pity it seemed! What a pity! Why in wonder was Fate so
perverse? Molly thought. Such a brilliant chance offered to herself
would have turned the whole world into a gilded dreamland. For she was
wholly heart-free.

The idea was a fascinating one. It held her fancy strongly. She began to
wonder if he cared very deeply for her sister, or if mere looks had
attracted him.

She had good looks too, she reflected. And she was quick to learn,
adaptable. The thought rushed through her mind like a meteor through
space. He might be willing. He might be kind. He had a look about his
eyes--a quizzical look--that certainly suggested possibilities. But dare
she put it to the test? Dare she actually interfere in the matter?

For the first time in all her vigorous young life Molly found her courage
at so low an ebb that she was by no means sure that she could rely upon
it to carry her through.

She spent the rest of that day in trying to screw herself up to what she
privately termed "the necessary pitch of impudence."

* * * * *

At nine o'clock on the following morning Lord Wyverton, sitting at
breakfast alone in the little coffee-room of the Red Lion, heard a voice
he recognized speak his name in the passage outside.

"Lord Wyverton," it said, "is he down?"

Lord Wyverton rose and went to the door. He met the landlady just
entering with a basket of eggs in her hand. She dropped him a curtsy.

"It's Miss Molly from the Vicarage, my lord," she said.

Molly herself stood in the background. Behind the landlady's broad back
she also executed a village bob.

"I had to come with the eggs. We supply Mrs. Richards with eggs. And it
seemed unneighbourly to go away without seeing your lordship," she said.

She looked at him with wonderful dark eyes that met his own with
unreserved directness. He told himself as he shook hands that this girl
was a great beauty and would be a magnificent woman some day.

"I am pleased to see you," he said, with quiet courtesy. "It was kind of
you to look me up. Will you come into the garden?"

"I haven't much time to spare," said Molly. "It's my cake morning. You
are coming round to the Vicarage, aren't you? Can't we walk together?"

"Certainly," he replied at once, "if you think I shall not be too early a
visitor."

Molly's lip