t child!" Jack exclaimed, staring blankly at
Bessie, who smiled faintly and said:

"She is seventeen; I am eighteen, and yet you sought me!"

"Yes, I know," Jack rejoined, "but there is a vast difference between
you and Flossie; she is so small and she seems so young. I did not
suppose she was seventeen. I have always looked upon her as a mere child
to pet and not as a woman to marry."

"Then look upon her in that light now," Bessie said, but Jack only shook
his head as he replied:

"I have loved you, Bessie. I shall never love another. Farewell, and God
bless you."

Stooping over her, he kissed her forehead, and then walked rapidly away
with her question occasionally ringing in his ears and stirring new and
strange thoughts in his heart where the pain was still so heavy.

"Why don't you marry Flossie?"

CHAPTER XX.

WHAT THE McPHERSONS DID.

They did just as little as they could, at least that portion of the
family which was at Vichy when the news of Archie's death was received
there. This portion comprised the Hon. John and Lady Jane, for Neil had
already started for Moscow with Blanche and a few other young people.

"How very inconvenient that he should die just now when we are so far
from Wales. It is quite impossible for you to undertake the long journey
in this hot weather; and what good could you do if you were there? You
could not pretend to be sorry, and we are not able to do much for the
girl; Neil's trip will take all our spare cash," Lady Jane said, as she
read the telegram received from Jack, and that decided her better-half
at once.

If Lady Jane said he could not go, he could not, but something of his
better nature prompted him to say that he would pay the funeral
expenses. This, however, he kept from his wife, who, dismissing
Stoneleigh from her mind, resumed her daily routine of duties--baths at
seven, music in the park at eight, breakfast at ten, gossip till one,
sleeping till three, driving at four, dressing for dinner, dining at
six, and going to the casino in the evening. This was her life, while
the Hon. John bathed, and smoked, and read the newspapers, and called it
all a confounded bore, and wished himself at home, and thought not
unfrequently of Stoneleigh and what was to become of Bessie.

Meantime Neil was enjoying himself immensely. His mother had given him
plenty of money, and his companions and surroundings were most agreeable
to him. And still, he never for a moment