d, had been permitted by him, her father, to
pay his addresses to her, so much was due to him. Why should his girl
lose this grand match? Why should his daughter not become a happy and
a glorious wife, seeing that her beauty and her grace had entirely
won this young lord's heart? "MY LORD," she wrote back to him,--"I
shall be happy to see you when you come, whatever day may suit you.
But, alas! I can only say what I have said.--Yet I am thine, MARION."
She had intended not to be tender, and yet she had thought herself
bound to tell him that all that she had said before was true.

It was after this that Lord Llwddythlw distinguished himself, so much
so that Walker and Watson did nothing but talk about him all the next
day. "It's those quiet fellows that make the best finish after all!"
said Walker, who had managed to get altogether to the bottom of his
horse during the run, and had hardly seen the end of it quite as a
man wishes to see it.

The day but one after this, the last Friday in February, was to be
the last of Hampstead's hunting, at any rate until after his proposed
visit to Holloway. He, and Lady Frances with him, intended to return
to London on the next day, and then, as far as he was concerned,
the future loomed before him as a great doubt. Had Marion been the
highest lady in the land, and had he from his position and rank been
hardly entitled to ask for her love, he could not have been more
anxious, more thoughtful, or occasionally more down-hearted. But this
latter feeling would give way to joy when he remembered the words
with which she had declared her love. No assurance could have been
more perfect, or more devoted. She had coyed him nothing as far as
words are concerned, and he never for a moment doubted but that her
full words had come from a full heart. "But alas! I can only say what
I have said." That of course had been intended to remove all hope.
But if she loved him as she said she did, would he not be able to
teach her that everything should be made to give way to love? It was
thus that his mind was filled, as day after day he prepared himself
for his hunting, and day after day did his best in keeping to the
hounds.

Then came that last day in February as to which all those around
him expressed themselves to be full of hope. Gimberley Green was
certainly the most popular meet in the country, and at Gimberley
Green the hounds were to meet on this occasion. It was known that men
were coming fro