not follow that, because they choose to
propose to me, they are my friends."

"No, but then they have not married you."

"No more has he; but, while we are talking of it, why should I not
marry Lord Minster? He can give me position, influence, everything
that is dear to a woman, except the rarest of all gifts--love."

"But is love so rare, Mildred?"

"Yes, the love that it can satisfy a woman either to receive or to
give, especially the latter, for in this we are more blessed in giving
than in receiving. It is but very rarely that the most fortunate of us
get a chance of accepting such love as I mean, and we can only give it
once in our lives. But you have not told me your reasons against my
marrying Lord Minster."

"Because he is a mean-spirited, selfish man. If he were not, he could
not have talked as he did last night. Because you do not love him,
Mildred, you cannot love such a man as that, if he were fifty times a
member of the Government."

"What does it matter to you, Arthur," she said, in a voice of
indescribable softness, bending her sunny head low over her work,
"whether I love him or not; my doing so would not make your heart beat
the faster."

"I don't wish you to marry him," he said, confusedly.

She raised her head and looked full at him with eyes which shone like
stars through a summer mist.

"That is enough, Arthur," she answered, in a tone of gentle
submission, "if you do not wish it, I will not," and, rising, she left
the room.

Arthur blushed furiously at her words, and a new sensation crept over
him.

"Surely," he said to himself, "she cannot---- No, of course she only
means that she will take my advice."

But, though he dismissed the suspicion thus readily, it left something
that he could not quite define behind it. He had, after the manner of
young men were women are concerned, thought that he understood Mildred
thoroughly; now he came to the modest conclusion that he knew very
little about her.

On the following afternoon, when he was at the Quinta talking as usual
to Mrs. Carr, he saw Lord Minster coming up the steps of the portico,
dressed in much the same way and with exactly the same air as he was
accustomed to assume when he mounted those of the "Reform," or
occasionally, if he thought that the "hungry electors" wanted
"pandering" to, those of the new "National Club."

"Hullo," said Arthur, "here comes Lord Minster in his war paint, frock
coat, tall hat, eye-glass and all.