ld me again about my reading; I
have nobody to tell me anything now."

"I could not possibly take the responsibility," said Rupert. "If you
have thrown away the key of your book-box, Miss Heron, I don't think
that you will be anxious to find it again."

"Oh, but the lock could be picked!" cried Kitty, and then repented her
words, for Rupert's impassive face showed no interest beyond that
required by politeness. The tears were very near her eyes, but she got
rid of them somehow, and plunged into a neat and frosty style of
conversation which she heartily detested. "This is Strathleckie; you
have never seen it before, I think? It is on the Leckie property, but it
is not an old place like Netherglen. I think it was built in 1840."

"Not a very good style of architecture," said Rupert, scanning it with
an attentive eye.

"A good style of architecture, indeed!" commented Kitty to herself, as
she ran away to her own room, after committing Mr. Vivian to the care of
her step-mother, who was lying on a sofa in the drawing-room, quite
ready to unfold her views about the higher education of girls. "What a
piece of ice he is! He used not to be so frigid. I wonder if we offended
him in any way before we left London. He has never been nice since then.
Nice? He is simply hateful!" and Kitty stamped on the floor of her
bed-room with alarming vehemence, but the crystal drops that had been so
long repressed were trembling on her eyelashes, and giving to her face
the grieved look of a child.

Meanwhile Vivian was thinking:--"What a pity she is so spoilt! A
coquettish, hare-brained flirt: that is all that she is now, and she
promised to be a sweet little woman two years ago! What business had she
to be out walking with Hugo Luttrell? I should have heard of it if they
were going to be married. I suppose she has had nobody to look after
her. And yet Miss Murray always struck me as a sensible, staid kind of
girl. Why can she not keep her cousin in order?" And then Rupert was
conscious of a certain sense of impatience for Kitty's return, much as
he disapproved of her alluring ways.

He was prevailed on to stay the night, and his visit was prolonged day
after day, until it was accepted as a settled thing that he would remain
for some time--perhaps even until Percival came home. It had been
calculated that Percival might easily be home in February.

He could not easily maintain the coldness and reserve with which he had
begun to treat Kit