am framing my plans."

And the smile that came with the words filled poor Miss Hastings with
terrible apprehensions as to the future of her strange, willful pupil.

The captain was still at the Court. He had had some vague idea of
rushing off to London; but a letter from one of his most intimate
friends warned him to keep out of the way until some arrangement could
be made about his affairs. More than one angry creditor was waiting for
him; indeed, the gallant captain had brought his affairs to such a pass
that his appearance in London without either money or the hope of it
would have been highly dangerous.

He was desperate. Sir Oswald had hinted to him, since the failure of
their plan, that he should not be forgotten in his will. He would have
borrowed money from him but for that hint; but he did not care to risk
the loss of many thousand pounds for the sake of fifteen hundred.

Fifteen hundred--that was all he wanted. If he could have gone back to
London the betrothed husband of Pauline Darrell, he could have borrowed
as many thousands; but that chance was gone; and he could have cursed
the girlish caprice that deprived him of so splendid a fortune. In his
heart fierce love and fierce hate warred together; there were times when
he felt that he loved Pauline with a passion words could not describe;
and at other times he hated her with something passing common hate. They
spoke but little; Miss Darrell spent as much time as possible in her own
rooms. Altogether the domestic atmosphere at Darrell Court had in it no
sunshine; it was rather the brooding, sullen calm that comes before a
storm.

The day came when the Court was invaded by an army of workmen, when a
suit of rooms was fitted up in the most superb style, and people began
to talk of the coming change. Pauline Darrell kept so entirely aloof
from all gossip, from all friends and visitors, that she was the last to
hear on whom Sir Oswald's choice had fallen. But one day the baronet
gave a dinner-party at which the ladies of the house were present, and
there was no mistaking the allusions made.

Pauline Darrell's face grew dark as she listened. So, then, the threat
was to be carried out, and the grand old place that she had learned to
love with the deepest love of her heart was never to be hers! She gave
no sign; the proud face was very pale, and the dark eyes had in them a
scornful gleam, but no word passed her lips.

Sir Oswald was radiant, he had never been