y lord leans wondrously to discontent.
His comfortable temper has forsook him."

With that a smile would flit across his stern features, and presently he
would be moved to confide in her, and she would encourage him. Then, she
didn't know yet exactly in what way it could come about, she would do
something to bring the two together again, and wipe out the bitter
misunderstanding.

It was a very pleasing dream. That and others like it kept her sitting
by the window till nearly bedtime. Then, just before the girls came
up-stairs, she turned up the lamp and made an entry in her journal. With
the fear that some prying eye might some day see that page, she omitted
all names, using only initials. It would have puzzled the Sphinx herself
to have deciphered that entry, unless she had guessed that the initials
stood for titles instead of names. The last paragraph concluded: "It now
lies between Sir F. and the B. M., but I think it will be the B. M. who
will get the mantle, for Sir F. and his brother have gone away on a
yachting trip. The M. of H. does not know that I know, and the secret
weighs heavy on my mind."

She was in bed when the girls came up, but the door into the next room
stood open and she heard Betty say, "Oh, we forgot to give you Alex
Shelby's message, Lloyd. Joyce and I met him on our way to the
post-office. He was walking with Bernice. He sent his greetings to the
fair Elaine. He fairly raved over the way you looked in that moonlight
tableau."

"It was evident that Bernice didn't enjoy his raptures very much," added
Joyce. "Her face showed that she was not only bored, but displeased."

"I can imagine it," said Lloyd. "Really, girls, I think this is a
serious case with Bernice. She seems to think moah of Mistah Shelby than
any one who has evah gone to see her, and she is old enough now to have
it mean something. She's neahly twenty, you know. I do hope he thinks as
much of her as she does of him."

"There!" whispered Mary to herself, nodding wisely in the darkness of
her room, as if to an unseen listener. "I knew it! I told you so! All
the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't make me believe she'd
stoop to such a thing as that nasty Bernice Howe insinuated. She's a
maid of honor in every way!"

CHAPTER X.

"A COON HUNT"

The morning after the arrival of the rest of the bridal party, Betty was
out of bed at the first sound of any one stirring in the servants'
quarters. She a