pen door. The two ladies were leisurely descending
the stairs. There was a little pause, then he heard Lady Calmady say,
as though in gentle rebuke:--

"No, no, dear child, I will not come with you. Richard would like
better to see you alone. Too, I have a number of letters to write. I am
at home to no one this afternoon. You will find me in the sitting-room
here. You can come and bid me good-bye--now, dear child, go."

Thus admonished, Lady Constance moved forward. Yet, to Dickie's
listening ears, it appeared that it took her an inordinate length of
time to traverse the length of the hall from the foot of the stairs to
the library door. And there again she paused, the organ, now nearer,
rattling out the tramp of a popular military march. But the throb and
beat of the quickstep failed to hasten little Lady Constance's lagging
feet, so that further rebellion against his own infirmity assaulted
poor Dick.

At length the girl entered with a little rush, her soft cheeks flushed,
her rounded bosom heaving, as though she arrived from a long and
arduous walk, rather than from that particularly deliberate traversing
of the cool hall and descent of the airy stairway.

"Ah! here you are at last, then!" Richard exclaimed. "I began to wonder
if you had forgotten all about me."

The young girl did not attempt to sit down, but stood directly in front
of him, her hands clasped loosely, yet somewhat nervously, almost in
the attitude of a child about to recite a lesson. Her still, heifer's
eyes were situate so far apart that Dickie, looking up at her, found it
difficult to focus them both at the same glance. And this produced an
effect of slight uncertainty, even defect of vision, at once pathetic
and quaintly attractive. Her face was heart-shaped, narrowing from the
wide, low brow to the small, rounded chin set below a round, babyish
mouth of slight mobility but much innocent sweetness. Her light, brown
hair, rising in an upward curve on either side the straight parting,
was swept back softly, yet smoothly, behind her small ears. The neck of
her white, alpaca dress, cut square according to the then prevailing
fashion, was outlined with flat bands of pale, blue ribbon, and filled
up with lace to the base of the round column of her throat. Blue
ribbons adorned the hem of her simple skirt, and a band of the same
colour encircled her shapely, though not noticeably slender, waist. Her
bosom was rather full for so young a woman, so that