t in the most amiable of moods. But he managed to
end his conversation with Theo unconstrainedly enough. He even gained
her ladyship's consent to their plan. It was curiously plain how they
both appeared to agree in thinking her a child, and treating her as one.
Not that Theo cared about that. She had been so used to Pamela, that she
would have felt half afraid of being treated with any greater ceremony;
but still she could clearly understand that Mr. Oglethorpe did not speak
to her as he would have spoken to Miss Gower. But free from any touch of
light gallantry as his manner toward the girl was, Denis Oglethorpe did
not forget her this night. On the contrary, he remembered her very
distinctly, and had in his mind a very exact mental representation of
her purple robe, soft white ruff, and all, as he buttoned up his paletot
over his chest in walking homeward. But he thought of her carelessly and
honestly enough, as a beautiful young creature years behind him in
experience, and utterly beyond him in all possibility of any sentimental
fancy.

The friendship existing between Lady Throckmorton and this young man was
a queer, inconsistent sentiment enough, and yet was a friendship, and a
mature one. The two had encountered each other some years ago, when
Denis had been by no means in his palmiest days. In fact, my lady had
picked him up when he stood in sore need of friends, and Oglethorpe
never forgot a favor. He never forgot to be grateful to Lady
Throckmorton; and so, despite the wide difference between their
respective ages and positions, their mutual liking had ripened into a
familiarity of relationship which made them more like elder sister and
younger brother than anything else. Oglethorpe, junior, was pretty much
what Oglethorpe, senior, had been, and notwithstanding her practical
views, Lady Throckmorton liked him none the worse for it. She petted and
patronized him, questioned and advised him, and if he did not please
her, rated him roundly without the slightest compunction. In fact, she
was a woman of caprices even at sixty-five, and Denis Oglethorpe was one
of her caprices.

And, in like manner, Theodora North became another of them. Finding her
tractable, she became quite fond of her, in her own way, and was at
least generous to lavishness in her treatment of her.

"You are very handsome, indeed, Theodora," she said to her a few days
after her arrival. "Of course, you know that--ten times handsomer than
ever