ast."

"And you, Pauline," inquired Lady Darrell, in her most caressing
manner--"you will help me with my visitor--will you not?"

"Pardon me, I must decline," answered Miss Darrell.

"Why, I thought Captain Langton and yourself were great friends!" cried
Lady Darrell.

"I am not answerable for your thoughts, Lady Darrell," said Pauline.

"But you--you sing so beautifully! Oh, Pauline, you must help me!"
persisted Lady Darrell.

She drew nearer to the girl, and was about to lay one white jeweled hand
on her arm, but Pauline drew back with a haughty gesture there was no
mistaking.

"Pray understand me, Lady Darrell," she said--"all arts and persuasions
are, as you know, lost on me. I decline to do anything toward
entertaining your visitor, and shall avoid him as much as possible."

Lady Darrell looked up, her face pale, and with a frightened look upon
it.

"Why do you speak so, Pauline? You must have some reason for it. Tell me
what it is."

No one had ever heard Lady Darrell speak so earnestly before.

"Tell me!" she repeated, and her very heart was in the words.

"Pardon me if I keep my counsel," said Pauline. "There is wisdom in few
words."

Then Miss Hastings, always anxious to make peace, said:

"Do not be anxious, Lady Darrell; Pauline knows that some of the
unpleasantness she had with Sir Oswald was owing to Captain Langton.
Perhaps that fact may affect her view of his character."

Lady Darrell discreetly retired from the contest.

"I am sure you will both do all you can," she said, in her most lively
manner. "We must have some charades, and a ball; we shall have plenty of
time to talk this over when our guests arrive." And, anxious to go
before Pauline said anything more, Lady Darrell quitted the room.

"My dear Pauline," said Miss Hastings, "if you would----"

But she paused suddenly, for Pauline was sitting with a rapt expression
on her face, deaf to every word.

Such a light was in those dark eyes, proud, triumphant, and clear--such
a smile on those curved lips; Pauline looked as though she could see
into futurity, and as though, while the view half frightened, it pleased
her.

Suddenly she rose from her seat, with her hands clasped, evidently
forgetting that she was not alone.

"Nothing could be better," she said. "I could not have asked of fate or
fortune anything better than this."

When Miss Hastings, wondering at her strange, excited manner, asked her
a question, she looked up