noyed her intensely, she scarcely knew why, and the more
so because it was true.

"Poor madame used to say so: she saw it from the first, when Fina was
quite a little baby," said Josephine in a low voice.

She was kneeling by her brother's side caressing Fina. She always made
love to the little girl: it was one of her methods of making love to
the father.

"Is she like her mother?" asked Edgar in the same low tones, looking
at the child critically.

"A little," answered Josephine--"not much. It is odd, is it not, that
she should be more like me?"

Just then Fina laid her fresh sweet lips against Edgar's, and he
kissed her with a strange thrill of tenderness.

"Why, Edgar, I never saw you take so to a child before," cried Mrs.
Harrowby, not quite pleasantly; and on Sebastian adding with his
nervous little laugh, which meant the thing it assumed only to play
at, "I declare I shall be quite jealous, Edgar, if you make love to
my little girl like this." Edgar, who had the Englishman's dislike
to observation, save when he offered himself for personal admiration,
laughed too and put Fina away.

But the child had taken a fancy to him, and could scarcely be induced
to leave him. She clung to his hand still, and went reluctantly when
her stepfather called her. It was a very little matter, but men being
weak in certain directions, it delighted Edgar and annoyed Sebastian
beyond measure.

"I hope your elder daughter is well," then said Edgar, emphasizing the
adjective, the vision of Leam as he first saw her, breasting the wind,
filling his eyes with a strange light.

"Leam? Quite well, thanks. But how do you know anything about her?"
was Sebastian's reply.

"I met her yesterday on the moor, and Rover introduced us," answered
Edgar laughing.

"How close she is!" said her father fretfully. "She never told me a
word about it."

"Perhaps she thought the incident too trifling," suggested Edgar, a
little chagrined.

"Oh no, not at all! In a place like North Aston the least thing counts
as an adventure; and meeting for the first time one of the neighbors
is not an incident to be forgotten as if it were of no more value than
meeting a flock of sheep."

Mr. Dundas spoke peevishly. To a man who liked to be amused and who
lived on crumbs this reserved companionship was disappointing and
tiresome.

"Leam is at home making music," said Fina disdainfully. She had caught
the displeased accent of her adopted father, and echo