she had talked to him of Lord
Ballindine, and he had promised to talk to his father on the same
subject; and she had since been endeavouring to bring herself to make
one other last appeal to her uncle's feelings. Her mind was therefore,
full of Lord Ballindine, when she walked into the library. But her face
was no tell-tale; her gait and demeanour were as dignified as though
she had no anxious love within her heart--no one grand desire, to
disturb the even current of her blood. She bowed her beautiful head to
Mr Armstrong as she walked into the room, and, sitting down herself,
begged him to take a chair.

The parson had by no means made up his mind as to what he was to say to
the young lady, so he shut his eyes, and rushed at once into the middle
of his subject. "Miss Wyndham," he said, "I have come a long way to
call on you, at the request of a friend of yours--a very dear and old
friend of mine--at the request of Lord Ballindine."

Fanny's countenance became deeply suffused at her lover's name, but the
parson did not observe it; indeed he hardly ventured to look in her
face. She merely said, in a voice which seemed to him to be anything
but promising, "Well, sir?" The truth was, she did not know what to
say. Had she dared, she would have fallen on her knees before her
lover's friend, and sworn to him how well she loved him.

"When Lord Ballindine was last at Grey Abbey, Miss Wyndham, he had not
the honour of an interview with you."

"No, sir," said Fanny. Her voice, look, and manner were still sedate
and courtly; her heart, however, was beating so violently that she
hardly knew what she said.

"Circumstances, I believe, prevented it," said the parson. "My
friend, however, received, through Lord Cashel, a message from you,
which--which--which has been very fatal to his happiness."

Fanny tried to say something, but she was not able.

"The very decided tone in which your uncle then spoke to him, has made
Lord Ballindine feel that any further visit to Grey Abbey on his own
part would be an intrusion."

"I never--" said Fanny, "I never--"

"You never authorised so harsh a message, you would say. It is not the
harshness of the language, but the certainty of the fact, that has
destroyed my friend's happiness. If such were to be the case--if it
were absolutely necessary that the engagement between you and Lord
Ballindine should be broken off, the more decided the manner in which
it were done, the better. Lord Bal