en is always supposed to be at Stalham just at this time of the
year, and now I have been obliged to tell him one fib upon another to
keep him away. When he comes to know it all, what on earth will he
say to me?"

"I am sure it has not been my fault," said Ayala.

"That's what young ladies always say when gentlemen break their
hearts."

When Ayala was again in her room, and had got rid of the buxom
female who came to assist her in taking off her new finery, she was
aware of having passed the evening triumphantly. She was conscious
of admiration. She knew that Sir Harry had been pleased by her
appearance. She was sure that Lady Albury was satisfied with her, and
she had seen something in the Colonel's glance that made her feel
that he had not been indifferent. But in their conversation at the
dinner table he had said nothing which any other man might not have
said, if any other man could have made himself as agreeable. Those
hunting days were all again described with their various incidents,
with the great triumph over the brook, and Twentyman's wife and baby,
and fat Lord Rufford, who was at the moment sitting there opposite to
them; and the ball in London, with the lady who was thrown out of the
window; and the old gentleman and the old lady of to-day who had been
so peculiar in their remarks. There had been nothing else in their
conversation, and it surely was not possible that a man who intended
to put himself forward as a lover should have talked in such fashion
as that! But then there were other things which occurred to her. Why
had there been that tear in his eye? And that "cela va sans dire"
which had come from Lady Albury in her railing mood;--what had that
meant? Lady Albury, when she said that, could not have known that the
Colonel had changed his purpose.

But, after all, what is a dress, let it be ever so pretty? The Angel
of Light would not care for her dress, let her wear what she might.
Were he to seek her because of her dress, he would not be the Angel
of Light of whom she had dreamed. It was not by any dress that
she could prevail over him. She did rejoice because of her little
triumph;--but she knew that she rejoiced because she was not an Angel
of Light herself. Her only chance lay in this, that the angels of
yore did come down from heaven to ask for love and worship from the
daughters of men.

As she went to bed, she determined that she would still be true to
her dream. Not because folk admire