ad at heart. "Do you remember that when we were
children, Norman, you used to criticise my dress?"

"Did I? It was very rude of me. I should not venture to criticise
anything so marvelous now. It is a wonderful dress, Philippa; in the
light it looks like moonbeams, in the shade like snow. Do you suppose I
should ever have the courage to criticise anything so beautiful?"

"Do you really like it, Norman--without flattery?"

"I never flatter, Philippa, not even in jest; you should know that."

"I never heard you flatter," she acknowledged. "I took pains with my
toilet, Norman, to please you; if it does so I am well content."

"There is another waltz," said Lord Arleigh; "we will go back to the
ball-room."

"Make him love me!" she said to herself, in bitter disdain. "I might as
well wish for one of the stars as for his love--it seems just as far
off."

Chapter X.

Lord Arleigh did not go to Beechgrove as he had intended. He found so
many old friends and so many engagements in London that he was not
inclined to leave it. Then, too, he began to notice many little things
which made him feel uncomfortable. He began to perceive that people
considered him in some kind of way as belonging to Miss L'Estrange; no
matter how many surrounded her, when he entered a room they were seen
one by one to disappear until he was left alone by her side. At first he
believed this to be accidental; after a time he knew that it must be
purposely done.

Miss L'Estrange, too, appeared to see and hear him only. If any one
wanted to win a smile from her lovely lips, he had but to make way for
Lord Arleigh; if any man wanted a kind word, or a kind glance from the
beautiful eyes, he had but to praise Lord Arleigh. People soon perceived
all this. The last to discover it was Lord Arleigh himself. It dawned
but slowly upon him. He began to perceive also that Philippa, after a
fashion of her own, appropriated him. She looked upon it as a settled
arrangement that he should ride with her every day--that every day he
must either lunch or dine with them--that he must be her escort to
theater and ball. If he at times pleaded other engagements she would
look at him with an air of childish wonder and say:

"They cannot have so great a claim upon you as I have, Norman?"

Then he was disconcerted, and knew not what to answer; it was true that
there was no one with so great a claim--it seemed to have been handed
down from his mother to him.