aid Warrender. "Do you think I meant any compliment?
but to see you giving yourself up to this, you, who--and to remember
that I had been perhaps grumbling, thinking of the schools, and other
such paltry honours."

"Oh, not paltry,--not paltry at all; very, very much the reverse. I am
sure no one interested in you can think so."

"I think so myself," he said. "I must tell you my little experiences on
that subject." And with this he told her all his little story about the
devotion of the Dons; about their discovery of his pursuits, and the
slackening of their approbation; and about how Brunson (a very good
fellow, and quite aware of their real meaning) had taken his place. Lady
Markland was duly interested, amused, and indignant; interested enough
to be quite sincere in her expressions, and yet independent enough to
smile a little at the conflict between wounded feeling and philosophy
on Warrender's part.

"But," she added, with a woman's liking for a practicable medium, "you
might have postponed your deeper reading till you had done what was
necessary, and so pleased both them and yourself."

"I thought one could not serve two masters," said Theo; "and that is why
I encourage myself, by your example, to take to the land and its duties,
and give up the other poor little bubble of reputation."

"Don't talk of my example," she said. "I am not disinterested. I am
making no choice. What I am doing is for the only object I have in life,
the only thing I have in the world."

He did not ask any question, but he fixed her with intent, inquiring
eyes.

"You need not look as if you had any doubt what it was. It is Geoff, of
course. I don't care very much for anything else. But to hand back his
inheritance unburdened, to make a man of my poor little Geoff----" Her
bright eyes moistened with quick-springing tears. She smiled, and her
face looked to Theo like the face of an angel; though he was impatient of
the motive, he adored her for it. And she gave her head a little toss,
as if to shake off this undue emotion. "I need not talk any high-flown
nonsense about such a simple duty, need I?" she said, once more with a
soft laugh. Instead of making the most of her pathetic position, she
would always ignore the claims she had upon sympathy. Her simple
duty,--that was all.

"We must not discuss that question," he said; "for if I were to say what
I thought---- And this brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about,
Lady Marklan