, Lady Vargrave, and if anything happens to me--life is uncertain--"

"Oh, do not speak so--my friend, my benefactor!"

"Why, indeed," resumed his lordship, mildly, "thank Heaven, I am very
well--feel younger than ever I did--but still life is uncertain; and
if you survive me, you will not throw obstacles in the way of my grand
scheme?"

"I--no,--no--of course you have the right in all things over her
destiny; but so young--so soft-hearted, if she should love one of her
own years--"

"Love!--pooh! love does not come into girls' heads unless it is put
there. We will bring her up to love Lumley. I have another reason--a
cogent one--our secret!--to him it can be confided--it should not go out
of our family. Even in my grave I could not rest if a slur were cast on
my respectability--my name."

Lord Vargrave spoke solemnly and warmly; then muttering to himself,
"Yes, it is for the best," he took up his hat and quitted the room. He
joined his stepchild on the lawn. He romped with her--he played with
her--that stiff, stately man!--he laughed louder than she did, and ran
almost as fast. And when she was fatigued and breathless, he made her
sit down beside him, in a little summer-house, and, fondly stroking down
her disordered tresses, said, "You tire me out, child; I am growing too
old to play with you. Lumley must supply my place. You love Lumley?"

"Oh, dearly, he is so good-humoured, so kind: he has given me such a
beautiful doll, with such eyes!"

"You shall be his little wife--you would like to be his little wife?"

"Wife! why, poor mamma is a wife, and she is not so happy as I am."

"Your mamma has bad health, my dear," said Lord Vargrave, a little
discomposed. "But it is a fine thing to be a wife and have a carriage of
your own, and a fine house, and jewels, and plenty of money, and be your
own mistress; and Lumley will love you dearly."

"Oh, yes, I should like all that."

"And you will have a protector, child, when I am no more."

The tone, rather than the words, of her stepfather struck a damp into
that childish heart. Evelyn lifted her eyes, gazed at him earnestly, and
then, throwing her arms round him, burst into tears.

Lord Vargrave wiped his own eyes, and covered her with kisses.

"Yes, you shall be Lumley's wife, his honoured wife, heiress to my rank
as to my fortunes."

"I will do all that papa wishes."

"You will be Lady Vargrave, then, and Lumley will be your husband," said
the stepfather,