nt--pink-and-white marquees were dotted
here and there on the smooth velvet lawns--bright flags waved from
different quarters of the gardens, signals of tennis, archery, and
dancing,--and the voluptuous waltz-music of a fine Hungarian band rose
up and swayed in the air with the downward floating songs of the birds
and the dash of fountains in full play. Girls in pretty light summer
costumes made picturesque groups under the stately oaks and
beeches,--gay laughter echoed from the leafy shrubberies, and stray
couples were seen sauntering meditatively through the rose-gardens,
treading on the fallen scented petals, and apparently too much absorbed
in each other to notice anything that was going on around them. Most of
these were lovers, of course--intending lovers, if not declared
ones,--in fact, Eros was very busy that day among the roses, and shot
forth a great many arrows, aptly aimed, out of his exhaustless quiver.

Two persons there were, however,--man and woman,--who, walking in that
same rose-avenue, did not seem, from their manner, to have much to do
with the fair Greek god,--they were Lady Winsleigh and Sir Francis
Lennox. Her ladyship looked exceedingly beautiful in her clinging dress
of Madras lace, with a bunch of scarlet poppies at her breast, and a
wreath of the same vivid flowers in her picturesque Leghorn hat. She
held a scarlet-lined parasol over her head, and from under the
protecting shadow of this silken pavilion, her dark, lustrous eyes
flashed disdainfully as she regarded her companion. He was biting an end
of his brown moustache, and looked annoyed, yet lazily amused too.

"Upon my life, Clara," he observed, "you are really awfully down on a
fellow, you know! One would think you never cared two-pence about me!"

"Too high a figure!" retorted Lady Winsleigh, with a hard little laugh.
"I never cared a brass farthing!"

He stopped short in his walk and stared at her.

"By Jove! you _are_ cool!" he ejaculated. "Then what did you mean all
the time?"

"What did _you_ mean?" she asked defiantly.

He was silent. After a slight, uncomfortable pause, he shrugged his
shoulders and smiled.

"Don't let us have a scene!" he observed in a bantering tone. "Anything
but that!"

"Scene!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Pray when have you had to complain
of me on that score?"

"Well, don't let me have to complain now," he said coolly.

She surveyed him in silent scorn for a moment, and her full, crimson
lips