"Archibald, I have a favor to ask you," she said, after Captain
Levison's departure. "Take me back with you."

"Impossible, my love. The change is doing you so much good; and I took
the apartments for six weeks. You must at least remain that time."

The color flowed painfully into her cheek. "I cannot stay without you,
Archibald."

"Tell me why."

"I am so dull without you," was all she could say. He felt that this was
not reason enough for altering an arrangement that was so beneficial
to her; so he left her the following morning, commending her to the
continued care of Captain Levison.

CHAPTER XXI.

QUITTING THE DANGER.

Lady Isabel was seated on one of the benches of the Petit Camp, as it is
called, underneath the ramparts of the upper tower. A week or ten days
had passed away since the departure of Mr. Carlyle, and in her health
there was a further visible improvement.

It was still evening, cool for July; no sound was heard save the hum of
the summer insects, and Lady Isabel sat in silence with her companion,
her rebellious heart beating with a sense of its own happiness. But for
the voice of conscience, strong within her; but for the sense of right
and wrong; but for the existing things; in short, but that she was a
wife, she might have been content to sit by his side forever, never to
wish to move or to break the silence. Did he read her feelings? He told
her, months afterward, that he did; but it may have been a vain boast,
an excuse.

"Do you remember the evening, Lady Isabel, just such a one as this, that
we all passed at Richmond?" he suddenly asked. "Your father, Mrs. Vane,
you, I and others?"

"Yes, I remember it. We had spent a pleasant day; the two Miss
Challoners were with us. You drove Mrs. Vane home, and I went with papa.
You drove recklessly, I recollect, and Mrs. Vane said when we got home
that you should never drive her again."

"Which meant, not until the next time. Of all capricious, vain, exacting
women, Emma Vane was the worst; and Emma Mount Severn is no improvement
upon it; she's a systematic flirt, and nothing better. I drove
recklessly on purpose to put her in a fright, and pay her off."

"What had she done?"

"Put me in a rage. She had saddled herself upon me, when I wanted--I
wished for another to be my companion."

"Blanche Challoner."

"Blanche Challoner!" echoed Captain Levison, in a mocking tone; "what
did I care for Blanche Challoner?"

Isabel remembered