essary that I should tell you myself. Now, I cannot
say whether, in all honour, that engagement has been dissolved."

"I thought there was no doubt about it," said the lord.

"It is as I tell you. I must write to Mr. Jones. Hearts cannot be
wrenched asunder without some effort in the wrenching. For the great
honour you have done me I am greatly thankful."

"Let all that pass," said the lord.

"Not so. It has to be spoken of. As I stand at present I have been
repudiated by Mr. Jones."

"Do you mean to ask him to take you back again?"

"I do not know how the letter will be worded, because it has not
been yet written. My object is to tell him of the honour which Lord
Castlewell proposes to me. And I have not thought it quite honest to
your lordship to do this without acquainting you."

Then that interview was over, and Lord Castlewell went away no doubt
disgusted. He had not intended to be treated in this way by a singing
girl, when he proposed to make her his countess. But with the disgust
there was a strengthened feeling of admiration for her conduct. She
looked much more like the countess than the singing girl when she
spoke to him. And there certainly never came a time in which he
could tell her to go back and sing and marry Mr. Moss. Therefore the
few days necessary for an answer went by, and then she gave him her
reply. "My lord," she said, "if you wish it still, it shall be so."

The time for "Love's young dream" had not gone by for Lord
Castlewell. "I do wish it still," he said in a tone of renewed joy.

"Then you shall have all that you wish." Thereupon she put her little
hands on his arm, and leant her face against his breast. Then there
was a long embrace, but after the embrace she had a little speech to
make. "You ought to know, Lord Castlewell, how much I think of you
and your high position. A man, they say, trusts much of his honour
into the hands of his wife. Whatever you trust to me shall be guarded
as my very soul. You shall be to me the one man whom I am bound to
worship. I will worship you with all my heart, with all my body,
with all my soul, and with all my strength. Your wishes shall be my
wishes. I only hope that an odd stray wish of mine may occasionally
be yours." Then she smiled so sweetly that as she looked up into his
face he was more enamoured of her than ever.

But now we must go back for a moment, and read the correspondence
which took place between Rachel O'Mahony and Frank Jones.