e same nature down
at 'The Embankment.'"

"My dear young lady--"

"Not another word; and I beg your pardon most heartily for having
given you this moment's annoyance."

"There is one of the lessees there," said M. Le Gros, pointing back
to the gentleman on the top of the steps, "who has been to hear
you and to look at you this two times--this three times at 'The
Embankment.' He do think you will become the grand singer of the
age."

"Who is the judicious gentleman?" asked Rachel, whispering to M. Le
Gros out of the carriage.

"He is Lord Castlewell. He is the eldest son of the Marquis of
Beaulieu. He have--oh!--lots of money. He was saying--ah! I must not
tell you what his lordship was saying of you because it will make you
vain."

"Nothing that any lord can say of me will make me vain," said Rachel,
chucking up her head. Then his lordship, thinking that he had been
kept long enough standing on the top of the theatre steps, lifted
his hat and came down to the carriage, the occupant of which he had
recognised.

"May I have the extreme honour of introducing Mademoiselle O'Mahony
to Lord Castlewell?" and M. Le Gros again pulled off his hat as
he made the introduction. Miss O'Mahony found that she had become
Mademoiselle as soon as she had drawn up her carriage at the front
door of the genuine Italian Opera.

"This is a pleasure indeed," said Lord Castlewell. "I am
delighted--more than delighted, to find that my friend Le Gros has
engaged the services of Mademoiselle O'Mahony for our theatre."

"But our engagement does not commence quite yet, I am sorry to say,"
replied Rachel. Then she prepared herself to be driven away, not
caring much for the combination of lord and lessee who stood in the
street speaking to her. A lessee should be a lessee, she thought, and
a lord a lord.

"May I do myself the honour of waiting upon you some day at 'The
Embankment,'" said the lord, again pulling off his hat.

"Oh! certainly," said Rachel; "I should be delighted to see you."
Then she was driven away, and did not know whether to be angry or not
in having given Lord Castlewell so warm a welcome. As a mere stray
lord there was no possible reason why he should call upon her; nor
for her why she should receive him. Though Frank Jones had been
dismissed, and though she felt herself to be free to accept any
eligible lover who might present himself, she still felt herself
bound on his behalf to keep herself free from all elderly