all for your sake! Vill you not forgive
me and be friends?"

"Will it really be all for my sake?"

She spoke incredulously, yet looked as if she were willing to be
convinced.

"I swear it vill!"

The latter part of this interview was so much more agreeable than the
beginning that when the distant rumble of the luncheon gong brought
it to an end at last they sighed, and for fully half a minute lingered
still in silence. If one may dare to express in crude language a
maiden's unspoken, formless thought, Eva's might be read--"There is yet
a moment left for him to say the three short words that seem to hang
upon his tongue!" While on his part he was reflecting that he had
another duologue arranged for that very afternoon, and that, for
the simultaneous suitor of two ladies, an open mind was almost
indispensable.

"Then you are going for a drive with the Count Bunker this afternoon?"
she asked, as they strolled slowly towards the house.

"For a leetle tour in my estate," he answered easily.

"On business, I suppose?"

"Yes, vorse luck!"

He knew not whether to feel more relieved or embarrassed to find that he
evidently rose in her estimation as a conscientious landlord.

. . . . . .

"You are having a capital day's sport, Baron," said the Count gaily, as
they drew near Lincoln Lodge.

During their drive the Baron had remained unusually silent. He now
roused himself and said in a guarded whisper--

"Bonker, vill you please to give ze coachman some money not to say jost
vere he did drive us."

"I have done so," smiled the Count.

His friend gratefully grasped his hand and curled his mustache with an
emboldened air.

A similar display of address on the part of Count Bunker resulted in the
Baron's finding himself some ten minutes later alone with Miss Maddison
in her sanctuary. But, to his great surprise, he was greeted with none
of the encouraging cordiality that had so charmed him yesterday. The
lady was brief in her responses, critical in her tone, and evidently
disposed to quarrel with her admirer on some ground at present
entirely mysterious. Indeed, so discouraging was she that at length he
exclaimed--

"Tell me, Miss Maddison--I should not have gom to-day? You did not vish
to see me. Eh?"

"I certainly was perfectly comfortable without you, Lord Tulliwuddle,"
said the heiress tartly.

"Shall I go avay?"

"You have come here entirely for your own pleasure; and the moment you
begin to feel tire