lately, so sweet.'

'She might have been good and sweet to you all your life,' said Hammond.
'I am not prepared to be grateful to her at a moment's notice for any
crumbs of affection she may throw you.'

'Oh but you must be grateful, sir; and you must love her and pity her,'
retorted Mary. 'Think how sadly she has suffered. We cannot be too kind
to her, or too fond of her, poor dear.'

'Mary is right,' said Hammond, half in jest and half in earnest. 'What
wonderful instincts these young women have.'

'Come and see her ladyship; and then you must have dinner, just as you
had that first evening,' said Mary. 'We'll act that first evening over
again, Jack; only you can't fall in love with Lesbia, as she isn't
here.'

'I don't think I surrendered that first evening, Mary. Though I thought
your sister the loveliest girl I had ever seen.'

'And what did you think of me, sir? Tell me that,' said Mary.

'Shall I tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth?'

'Of course.'

'Then I freely confess that I did not think about you at all. You were
there--a pretty, innocent, bright young maiden, with big brown eyes and
auburn hair; but I thought no more about you than I did about the
Gainsborough on the wall, which you very much resemble.'

'That is most humiliating,' said Mary, pouting a little in the midst of
her bliss.

'No, dearest, it is only natural,' answered Hammond. 'I believe if all
the happy lovers in this world could be questioned, at least half of
them would confess to having thought very little about each other at
first meeting. They meet, and touch hands, and part again, and never
guess the mystery of the future, which wraps them round like a cloud,
never say of each other, There is my fate; and then they meet again, and
again, as hazard wills, and never know that they are drifting to their
doom.'

Mary rang bells and gave orders, just as she had done in that summer
gloaming a year ago. The young men had arrived just at the same hour, on
the stroke of nine, when the eight o'clock dinner was over and done
with; for a _tete-a-tete_ meal with Fraeulein Mueller was not a feast to
be prolonged on account of its felicity. Perhaps they had so contrived
as to arrive exactly at this hour.

Lady Maulevrier received them both with extreme cordiality. But the
young men saw a change for the worse in the invalid since the spring.
The face was thinner, the eyes too bright, the flush upon the hollow