ulness and
affection, that Isabel felt as if a valuable and noble-hearted friend
had suddenly been made known to her. It was a silly little fanciful
heart, but it was sound to the core; and when Isabel said, 'There will
be very hard work, Charlotte, but we will try to do our best for Mr.
Frost and the children, and we will help each other,' Charlotte felt as
if no task could be too hard if it were to be met with such a look and
smile.

'Is it settled?' asked Lord Fitzjocelyn, as Charlotte opened the door
for him.

'Oh, yes, thank you, my Lord--'

'But, Charlotte, one thing is decided. Mrs. Frost can afford no more
eau de Cologne. The first hysterics and you go!'

He passed upstairs, and found Isabel beginning to dismantle the
drawing-room--'Which you arranged for us!' she said.

A long, deep sigh was the answer, and Louis mused for some moments ere
he said--'It is hard work to say good-bye to trifles with which
departed happiness seems connected.'

'Oh, no!' cried Isabel, eagerly. 'With such a home, the happiness
cannot be departed.'

'No, not with such a home!' said Louis, with a melancholy smile; 'but I
was selfish enough to be thinking who hung that picture--'

'I don't think you were the selfish person,' said Isabel.

'Patience and work!' said Louis, rousing himself. 'Some sort of good
time _must_ come,'--and he quickly put his hand to assist in putting
the Dresden shepherd and shepherdess into retirement, observing that
they seemed the genii of the place, and he set his mind on their
restoration.

'I do not think,' said Isabel, as she afterwards narrated this scene to
her husband, 'that I ever realized his being so much attached to Mary
Ponsonby; I thought it was a convenient suitable thing in which he
followed his father's wishes, and I imagined he had quite recovered it.'

'He did not look interesting enough? Yes! he was slow in knowing his
own mind; but his heart once given there is no recalling it, whatever
his father may wish.'

'Or my mother,' said Isabel, smiling.

'Ah! I have never asked you what your party say of him in the London
world.'

'They say he quite provokes them by being such a diligent member, and
that people debate as to whether he will distinguish himself. Some say
he does not care enough, and others, that he has too many crotchets.'

'Just so! Public men are not made of that soft, scrupulous stuff,
which only hardens and toughens when principle is clear before hi