ur
pupil with any notion of obedience, enforce it now, please. Tell Miss
Darrell to put on her hat and come down to the shore."

Miss Hastings smiled.

"You are too old now, Pauline, to be dictated to in such matters," said
Miss Hastings; "but if Sir Vane wishes you to go out, there is no reason
why you should not oblige him."

Lady St. Lawrence laid her hand on the beautiful head.

"My son has few pleasures," she said; "give him this one."

Pauline complied. Time had been when anything like a command had
instantly raised a spirit of rebellion within her; but in this clearer
light that had fallen upon her she saw things so differently; it was as
though her soul had eyes and they were just opened.

She rose and put on the pretty, plumed hat which Miss Hastings brought
for her; she drew an Indian shawl over her shoulders. She never once
looked at Sir Vane.

"Your goodness is not only an act of charity," he said, "but it is also
a case in which virtue will be its own reward. You have no notion how
beautifully the sun is shining on the sea."

So they went out together, and Lady St. Lawrence looked after them with
a sigh.

"She is a most beautiful girl, certainly, and I admire her. If she only
had Lillith Davenant's money!"

Sir Vane and Pauline walked in silence down to the shore, and then the
former turned to his companion.

"Miss Darrell," he said, "will you tell me why you were not willing to
come out with me--why you have avoided me and turned the light of your
beautiful face from me?"

Her face flushed, and her heart beat, but she made no answer.

"I have borne my impatience well for the last three days," he said; "now
I must speak to you, for I can bear it no longer, Pauline. Oh, do not
turn away from me! I love you, and I want you to be my wife--my wife,
darling; and I will love you--I will cherish you--I will spend my whole
life in working for you. I have no hope so great, so sweet, so dear, as
the hope of winning you."

She made him no answer. Yet her silence was more eloquent than words.

"It seems a strange thing to say, but, Pauline, I loved you the first
moment I saw you. Do you remember, love? You were sitting with one of my
books in your hand, and the instant my eyes fell upon your beautiful
face a great calm came over me. I could not describe it; I felt that in
that minute my life was completed. My whole heart went out to you, and I
knew, whether you ever learned to care for me or not, tha