olished manner, "and
I may therefore ask you to excuse an absence of ceremony in me in
alluding to the impression which you have made upon me. You are a
stranger to me--an American, I judge from your speech. I hope that I
am to be so fortunate as to hear that there is something which I can
do for you."

"There is," Bettina said--"a thing so vital and important to me that,
now I am in your presence, I am afraid to venture to speak, for fear
you may refuse to hear my prayer."

"You are in small danger from that quarter, I assure you. I am ready
to do for you whatever you may ask. Let me, however, put a few
questions before I hear your request. You are wearing mourning. Is
it, perhaps, for your husband?"

"For my mother," said Bettina, with a sudden trembling of the lip and
suffusion of the eyes which gave her a new charm, in revealing the
fact that this young goddess had a human heart which could be quickly
stirred to emotion.

"Forgive me," said Lord Hurdly, with great courtesy. "Forget that I
have roughly touched a spot so sore, and tell me this, if you will:
are you married or unmarried?"

"I am unmarried," said Bettina, beginning to tremble as she found the
important moment upon her; "but I am about to be married. I have made
this visit to London beforehand only to see you. The man I am going
to marry is your cousin and heir, Horace Spotswood."

Lord Hurdly's guarded face betrayed a certain agitation, but the
signs of this were quickly controlled.

He looked straight into her eyes for a few seconds without speaking.
Then he crossed the room and touched an electric button, saying, as
he did so:

"I will get rid of an engagement that I had, so that I may be quite
at leisure to talk with you."

Neither spoke again until the servant had come, taken his
instructions, and gone away, closing the door behind him. There was a
certain determination in Lord Hurdly's manner and expression which
did not escape Bettina. She was sure that her revelation of her
identity had prompted some decisive course of action in his mind, but
what it was she could not guess from that inscrutable face.

"I am now quite free for the morning," her companion said. "Naturally
there is much for us to say to each other. Will you not lay aside
your bonnet and wrap? The day is warm, and that heavy mourning must
distress you."

Certainly his manner was kind. Bettina began to like him and to hope
for success in her object in coming here. Qui