so ungrateful, as to doubt what I should answer, if
Lion asked me whether I would willingly say or do anything that made him
unhappy? If there be such a doubt in my heart, I would tear it out
by the roots, heart and all!' Oh, Mr. Chillingly! There would be no
happiness for her with another, knowing that she had blighted the life
of him to whom she owes so much, though she never will learn how
much more she owes." Kenelm not replying to this remark, Mrs. Cameron
resumed, "I will be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Chillingly. I was not
quite satisfied with Lily's manner and looks the next morning, that is,
yesterday. I did fear there might be some struggle in her mind in which
there entered a thought of yourself. And when Walter, on his arrival
here in the evening, spoke of you as one he had met before in his rural
excursions, but whose name he only learned on parting at the bridge by
Cromwell Lodge, I saw that Lily turned pale, and shortly afterwards
went to her own room for the night. Fearing that any interview with you,
though it would not alter her resolve, might lessen her happiness on
the only choice she can and ought to adopt, I resolved to visit you this
morning, and make that appeal to your reason and your heart which I have
done now,--not, I am sure, in vain. Hush! I hear his voice!"

Melville entered the room, Lily leaning on his arm. The artist's comely
face was radiant with ineffable joyousness. Leaving Lily, he reached
Kenelm's side as with a single bound, shook him heartily by the hand,
saying, "I find that you have already been a welcomed visitor in this
house. Long may you be so, so say I, so (I answer for her) says my fair
betrothed, to whom I need not present you."

Lily advanced, and held out her hand very timidly. Kenelm touched rather
than clasped it. His own strong hand trembled like a leaf. He ventured
but one glance at her face. All the bloom had died out of it, but the
expression seemed to him wondrously, cruelly tranquil.

"Your betrothed! your future bride!" he said to the artist, with a
mastery over his emotion rendered less difficult by the single glance
at that tranquil face. "I wish you joy. All happiness to you, Miss
Mordaunt. You have made a noble choice."

He looked round for his hat; it lay at his feet, but he did not see
it; his eyes wandering away with uncertain vision, like those of a
sleep-walker.

Mrs. Cameron picked up the hat and gave it to him.

"Thank you," he said meekly;