he girl.

"My dear Miss Darrell, I was getting quite impatient; it seems an age
since I saw you--really an age."

"It is an exceedingly short one," returned Pauline; "I saw you on
Tuesday, Lady Hampton."

"Did you? Ah, yes; how could I forget? Ah, my dear child, when you reach
my age--when your mind is filled with a hundred different matters--you
will not have such a good memory as you have now."

Lady Hampton was a little, over-dressed woman. She looked all flowers
and furbelows--all ribbons and laces. She was, however, a perfect
mistress of all the arts of polite society; she knew exactly what to say
and how to say it; she knew when to smile, when to look sympathetic,
when to sigh. She was not sincere; she never made the least pretense of
being so. "Society" was her one idea--how to please it, how to win its
admiration, how to secure a high position in it.

The contrast between the two was remarkable--the young girl with her
noble face, her grand soul looking out of her clear dark eyes; Lady
Hampton with her artificial smiles, her shifting glances, and would-be
charming gestures. Sir Oswald stood by with a courtly smile on his face.

"I have some charming news for you," said Lady Hampton. "I am sure you
will be pleased to hear it, Miss Darrell."

"That will quite depend on what it is like," interposed Pauline,
honestly.

"You dear, droll child! You are so original; you have so much character.
I always tell Sir Oswald you are quite different from any one else."

And though her ladyship spoke smilingly, she gave a keen, quiet glance
at Sir Oswald's face, in all probability to watch the effect of her
words.

"Ah, well," she continued, "I suppose that in your position a little
singularity may be permitted," and then she paused, with a bland smile.

"To what position do you allude?" asked Miss Darrell.

Lady Hampton laughed again. She nodded with an air of great penetration.

"You are cautious, Miss Darrell. But I am forgetting my news. It is
this--that my niece, Miss Elinor Rocheford, is coming to visit me."

She waited evidently for Miss Darrell to make some complimentary reply.
Not a word came from the proud lips.

"And when she comes I hope, Miss Darrell, that you and she will be great
friends."

"It is rather probable, if I like her," was the frank reply.

Sir Oswald looked horrified. Lady Hampton smiled still more sweetly.

"You are sure to like her. Elinor is most dearly loved wherever she
goes