ar
too sensible for ingratitude, and fully appreciated the gifts that life
had so liberally dealt her. And she fully believed in work as the
universal panacea. The mere thought of a busy future brought a glow to
her heart. She rose with a smile as Lady Victoria emerged from the
cottage at the upper end of the village.

Lady Victoria was not smiling. Her brows were drawn, and she looked
angry and contemptuous.

"The little idiot!" she exclaimed, as they started briskly for home.
"This is the first failure I have had in ten years. That is one of my
boasts. And I took particular pains with that girl. Now Jack will have
the agreeable task of coercing the man into marrying her, for it appears
that his ardor has cooled."

Her brow cleared in a few moments, but she seemed to have had enough of
conversation, and it was evident that words for words' sake, or as a
flimsy chain between signposts of genuine interest, had no place in her
social rubric. Isabel, who was equally indifferent, strode along beside
her without so much as a comment, and so confirmed the good impression
she had made on her mettlesome relative. As they approached the house,
Lady Victoria turned to her with a smile that brought sweetness to her
eyes rather than any one of her more dazzling qualities.

"I am generally in my boudoir at five," she said. "Come in this
afternoon for a chat before tea, if you have nothing better to do. Now
run and get ready for breakfast."

VIII

Whether or not Mr. Gwynne had made up his mind to follow his mother's
advice and employ a new weapon in his siege of Mrs. Kaye, or whether,
like common mortals, he was subject to the natural impulses of youth,
the most novel of the guests of Capheaton found herself on his right in
the informality of breakfast, and the object of his solicitude. He
fetched her bacon and toast from the sideboard, and when he discovered
that she did not like cream in her tea, carried her cup back to his
mother and waited for the more pungent substitute. And then he actually
made an effort to entertain her. There was a flicker of surprised
amusement in the neighborhood, but Isabel accepted his attentions as a
matter of course, assuming that the young gentleman felt refreshed after
a night's rest in his own bed, or had awakened to a sense of her
importance as a member of his family. It was not until she caught Mrs.
Kaye's eye and read a contemptuous power to retaliate, that she
experienced a certa