pposed," said Lady Belgrade, as she handed him a cup of tea,
which he immediately passed to his guest.

After tea, when the service was removed, Sir Lemuel challenged Lady
Belgrade for a game of chess, and told his daughter to show Mr. Scott
those chromoes of the Madonnas of Raphael which had arrived in the last
parcel from Paris.

Salome flushed to the edges of her dark hair as she arose, glanced
shyly at her guest for an instant, and walked to the other end of the
drawing-room.

There, on a gilded stand, under a brilliant gasolier, lay a large and
handsome volume, which Salome indicated as the one referred to by her
father.

The marquis brought two chairs to the stand, and they sat down to go over
the book.

Meanwhile, the banker and the dowager commenced their game of chess. But
from time to time, each looked furtively in the direction of the young
people. _They_ were looking at the Madonnas of Raphael, and, once
in a while, shyly into each other's eyes. All that Sir Lemuel saw there
pleased him. All that Lady Belgrade saw there _dis_pleased her.

At length she put her hand over that of her antagonist, and stopped his
move while she said:

"Sir Lemuel, a conflagration may be arrested by stamping out a spark of
fire."

"Whatever do you mean, my lady!" inquired the perplexed banker.

"An inundation may be prevented by stopping up a small leak."

"I am more mystified than ever!"

"Look at Salome and Mr. Scott, then," said her ladyship, solemnly.

"Well, what of them? They seem to be very happy and very well pleased
with each other."

"Ah! that is it, and worse may come of it."

"What worse can come of it?"

"Sir Lemuel, this Mr. Scott, you must remember, is nothing but an
adventurer, who only gains an entrance into respectable circles on
account of his journalistic reputation. He is probably also a pauper,
but being a very handsome and attractive man, he is certainly a very
dangerous, and likely to be a very successful fortune-hunter."

"You mean he may try to marry my heiress?"

"Yes, Sir Lemuel."

"He has my full consent to do so."

"Sir Lemuel!"

"Listen, my good lady, I have a secret to tell you. That gentleman whom
we have known as Mr. John Scott only, is really Archibald-Alexander-John
Scott, Marquis of Hereward."

A woman of the world is hardly ever "taken aback." Lady Belgrade gave no
exclamation. But she caught her breath and stared at the speaker.

"It is as I have told you. He is