ssionary to some very far away region." She
was quite willing Mr. Carlisle should understand this.

"Just as well," he answered. "If he would not come into his right
place, such a man would only work to draw other persons out of theirs.
There is a sort of popular power of speech which wins with the common
and uneducated mind. I saw it won upon you, Nellie; how was that?"

The light tone, in which a smile seemed but half concealed,
disconcerted Eleanor. She was not ashamed, she thought she was not, but
she did not know how to answer.

"You are a little _tete-montee_," he said. "If I had been a little
nearer to you to-night, I would have saved you from taking one step;
but I did not fancy that you could be so suddenly wrought upon. Pray
how happened you to be in that place to-night?'

"I told you," said Eleanor after some hesitation, "that I had an
unsatisfied wish of heart which made me uneasy--and you would not
believe me."

"If you knew how this man could speak, I do not wonder at your wanting
to hear him. Did you ever hear him before?"

"Yes," said Eleanor, feeling that she was getting in a wrong position
before her questioner. "I have heard him once--I wanted to hear him
again."

"Why did you not tell me your wish, that you might gratify it safely,
Eleanor?"

"I supposed--if I did--I should lose my chance of gratifying it at all."

"You are a real _tete-montee_," he said, standing now before her and
taking hold lightly and caressingly of Eleanor's chin as he spoke. "It
was well nobody saw you to-night but me. Does my little wife think she
can safely gratify many of her wishes without her husband's knowledge?"

Eleanor coloured brightly and drew herself back. "That is the very
thing," she said; "now you are coming to the point. I told you I had
wishes with which yours would not agree, and it was better for you to
know it before it was too late."

"Too late for what?"

"To remedy a great evil."

"There is generally a remedy for everything," said Mr. Carlisle coolly;
"and this sort of imaginative fervour which is upon you is sure to find
a cold bath of its own in good time. My purpose is simply in future,
whenever you wish to hear another specimen of the kind of oratory we
have listened to this evening, to be with you that I may protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"From going too far, further than you know, in your present _exaltee_
state. The Lady of Rythdale must not do anything unworthy of hers