me die!"

There was a rush of carriage-wheels without, a hansom cab whirled up to
the door, and a tall young man leaped out. Two minutes more and the
tall young man burst impetuously into the dark room.

"All alone, Mrs. Denover," called a cheery voice, "and all in the dark?
Darkness isn't wholesome--too conducive to low spirits and the blue
devils. Halloo! Jane Anne, idol of my young affections, bring up the
gas."

He leaned over the greasy baluster, shouting into the invisible regions
below, and was answered promptly enough by a grimy maid-servant with a
flickering dip-candle.

"'Tain't my fault, nor yet missis's," said this grimy maid. "Mrs.
Denover will sit in the dark, which I've----"

"That will do, Jane Anne," taking the dip and unceremoniously cutting
her short. "Vamoose! evaporate! When I want you I'll sing out."

He re-entered the room and placed the candle on the table. The woman
had risen, and stood with both hands clasped over her heart, a wild,
gleaming, eager light in her black eyes. But she strove to restrain
herself.

"I am glad to see you back, Mr. Parmalee," she said. "I have been
expecting you for the last two days."

"And wearing yourself to skin and bone, as I knew you would, with your
fidgets. What's the good of taking on so? I told you I'd come back as
quick as I could, and I've done so. It ain't my fault that the time's
been so long--it's Lady Kingsland's."

"You have seen her?"

"That I have. And very well worth seeing she is, I tell you. She's as
handsome as a picture, though not so handsome as you must have been at
her age, either, Mrs. Denover. And she says she'll see you."

"Oh, thank God!"

The woman tottered hack and sunk into a chair.

"That's right," said Mr. Parmalee; "take a seat, and let us talk it all
over at our ease."

He took one himself, not in the ordinary fashion, but with his face to
the back, his arms crossed over it, and his long legs twisted
scientifically round the bottom.

"I've seen him, and I've seen her," said the photographer, "and a
finer-looking couple ain't from here to anywhere. And as the Lord made
'em, He matched 'em for an all-fired prouder pair you couldn't meet in
a summer-day's walk."

"She comes of a proud race," the woman murmured, feebly. "The Hunsdens
are of the best and oldest stock in England."

"And she's a thorough-bred, if ever there was a thorough-bred one yet,
and blood will show in a woman as well as a hor