om, and the hall was filled by the young
members of the family to welcome them. "Remember," said Bramleigh, "we
have had nothing but a light luncheon since morning. Come and join us,
if you like, in the dining-room, but let us have some dinner as soon as
may be."

It is not pleasant, perhaps, to be talked to while eating by persons
quite unemployed by the pleasures of the table; but there is a sort
of "free and easy" at such times not wholly unconducive to agreeable
intercourse, and many little cares and attentions, impossible or
unmeaning in the more formal habits of the table, are now graceful
adjuncts to the incident. Thus was it that Marion contrived by some
slight service or other to indicate to Lord Culduff that he was an
honored guest; and when she filled his glass with champagne, and poured
a little into her own to pledge him, the great man felt a sense of
triumph that warmed the whole of that region where, anatomically, his
heart was situated. While the others around were engaged in general
conversation, she led him to talk of his journey to town, and what he
had done there; and he told her somewhat proudly of the high mission
about to be entrusted to him, not omitting to speak of the haughty
tone he had used towards the Minister, and the spirit he had evinced in
asserting his just claims. "We had what threatened at one time to be a
stormy interview. When a man like myself has to recall the list of his
services, the case may well be considered imminent. He pushed me to
this, and I accepted his challenge. I told him, if I am not rich, it is
because I have spent my fortune in maintaining the dignity of the high
stations I have filled. The breaches in my fortune are all honorable
wounds. He next objected to what I could not but admit as a more valid
barrier to my claims. Can you guess it?"

She shook her head in dissent. It could not be his rank, or anything
that bore upon his rank. Was it possible that official prudery had been
shocked by the noble Lord's social derelictions? Had the scandal of that
old elopement survived to tarnish his fame and injure his success?
and she blushed as she thought of the theme to which he invited her
approach.

"I see you do divine it," said he, smiling courteously.

"I suspect not," said she, diffidently, and still blushing deeper.

"It would be a great boon to me--a most encouraging assurance," said
he, in a low and earnest voice, "if I could believe that your interest
in m