information from him; he had better tell her what he meant her to know.

"You see, Mother, the whole thing has been arranged rather suddenly. I
only settled upon it last night myself, and so told you at once. She
will be awfully rich, which is rather a pity in a sense--though I
suppose we shall live at Wrayth again, and all that--- but I need not
tell you I am not marrying her for such a reason."

"No, I know you," Lady Tancred said, "but I cannot agree with you about
its being a pity that she is rich. We live in an age when the oldest and
most honored name is useless without money to keep up its traditions,
and any woman would find your title and your position well worth all her
gold. There are things you will give her in return which only hundreds
of years can produce. You must have no feeling that you are accepting
anything from her which you do not equalize. Remember, it is a false
sentiment."

"Oh, I expect so--and she is well bred, you know, so she won't throw it
in my teeth." And Lord Tancred smiled.

"I remember old Colonel Grey," his mother continued; "years ago he drove
a coach; but I don't recollect his brother. Did he live abroad,
perhaps?"

This was an awkward question. The young fiance was quite ignorant about
his prospective bride's late father!

"Yes," he said hurriedly. "Zara married very young, she is quite young
now--only about twenty-three. Her husband was a brute, and now she has
come to live with Francis Markrute. He is an awfully good fellow,
Mother, though you don't like him; extremely cultivated, and so quaintly
amusing, with his cynical views on life. You will like him when you know
him better. He is a jolly good sportsman, too--for a foreigner."

"And of what nation is Mr. Markrute, Tristram, do you know?" Lady
Tancred asked.

Really, all women--even mothers--were tiresome at times with their
questions!

"'Pon my word, I don't." And he laughed awkwardly. "Austrian, perhaps,
or Russian. I have never thought about it; he speaks English so well,
and he is a naturalized Englishman, in any case."

"But as you are marrying into the family, don't you think it would be
more prudent, dear, to gather some information on the subject?" Lady
Tancred hazarded.

And then she saw the true Tancred spirit come out, which she had often
vainly tried to combat in her husband during her first years of married
life, and had desisted in the end. Tristram's strong, level eyebrows
joined themselves in a f