seat by the driver, and clambered up
at the back, when he hooked himself on somehow among the luggage.

'Dear Maulevrier, how delicious of you to come!' said Mary, when they
were rattling on towards Fellside; 'I hope you are going to stay for
ages.'

'Well, I dare say, if you make yourself very agreeable, I may stay till
after Easter.'

Mary's countenance fell.

'Easter is in three weeks,' she said, despondingly.

'And isn't three weeks an age, at such a place as Fellside? I don't know
that I should have come at all on this side of the August sports, only
as the grandmother was ill, I thought it a duty to come and see her. A
fellow mayn't care much for ancestors when they're well, you know; but
when a poor old lady is down on her luck, her people ought to look after
her. So, here I am; and as I knew I should be moped to death here----'

'Thank you for the compliment,' said Mary.

'I brought Hammond along with me. Of course, I knew Lesbia was safe out
of the way,' added Maulevrier in an undertone.

'It is very obliging of Mr. Hammond always to go where you wish,'
returned Mary, who could not help a bitter feeling when she remembered
her grandmother's cruel suggestion. 'Has he no tastes or inclinations of
his own?'

'Yes, he has, plenty of them, and much loftier tastes than mine, I can
tell you. But he's kind enough to let me hang on to him, and to put up
with my frivolity. There never were two men more different than he and I
are; and I suppose that's why we get on so well together. When we were
in Paris he was always up to his eyes in serious work--lectures, public
libraries, workmen's syndicates, Mary Anne, the International--heaven
knows what, making himself master of the political situation in France;
while I was _rigolant_ and _chaloupant_ at the Bal Bullier.'

It was generous of Maulevrier to speak of his hanger-on thus; and no
doubt the society of a well-informed earnest young man was a great good
for Maulevrier, a good far above the price of those pounds, shillings,
and pence which the Earl might spend for his dependent's benefit; but
when a girl of Mary's ardent temper has made a hero of a man, it galls
her to think that her hero's dignity should be sacrificed, his honour
impeached, were it by the merest tittle.

Maulevrier made a good many inquiries about his grandmother, and seemed
really full of kindness and sympathy; but it was with a feeling of
profound awe, nay, of involuntary reluctance and