brother could see her
indifference gradually melting away, a keen and critical look taking its
place.

"Who was she?" she at length condescended to ask, though somewhat curtly.

"The daughter of a California gentleman," Sir William answered, quietly.

"A California <i>gentleman!</i>" with a scornful accent upon the last word.
"You speak of him as of an equal."

"Certainly," returned the baronet, a smile of amusement slightly curling
his lips, "Mr. Abbot was my equal, if not my superior, in point of
intellect, and all that goes to make a gentleman, while his daughter is
in no wise my inferior."

"How can you make such an absurd statement, William?" demanded his sister,
impatiently. "The idea of an American plebeian being the equal of a Heath
of Heathdale!"

Sir William laughed outright; then he said:

"Your loyalty to your family does you credit, Miriam, but I imagine, if
you should ever visit America--which I trust for your own sake, you will
do some time--that you will return much wiser than you went. Your ideas
regarding people and things, in that grand republic are very crude and
incorrect. But how do you like the face that I have shown you?"

"The face is well enough," Lady Linton was forced to admit.

There is nothing weak about it?"

"N-o."

"It is not lacking in intelligence or character?"

"Not so far as I am able to judge from a simple picture", the woman
confessed, rather reluctantly.

"And yet it does not flatter her; you do not often see a face like that
even among the noble families of England, and she is as lovely in mind as
in person," said Sir William, fondly, as he took up one of the photographs
and gazed upon it with his heart in his eyes.

"Humph! if you are so proud of your American bride, why did you not bring
her home with you?" Lady Linton inquired, in a mocking tone, and then
could have bitten her tongue through for having allowed herself to betray
her curiosity so far.

Sir William flushed hotly. It was evident that his sister was no more
reconciled since seeing Virgie's pictures than before. Her pride of birth
had received a shock which she could neither overlook nor forgive.

"Lady Heath was not able to travel. Her physician told me that if she
crossed the ocean it would be at the risk of her life. Miriam, Virgie will
soon become a mother, God willing."

Lady Linton started and shot a swift look of astonishment at her brother
upon this unexpected announcement.

This inf