ts of the impoverished, with only a single
companion,--of her own sex!--and smiled approvingly. And in her present
state of mind, remembering her companion's timid attitude towards Lord
Beverdale's opinions, she was not above administering this slight snub
to him in her presence.

When they had driven away, with many regrets, Miss Amelyn was deeply
concerned. "I am afraid," she said, with timid conscientiousness, "I
have kept you from going with them. And you must be bored with what you
have seen, I know. I don't believe you really care one bit for it--and
you are only doing it to please me."

"Trot out the rest of your show," said Sadie promptly, "and we'll wind
up by lunching with the rector."

"He'd be too delighted," said Miss Amelyn, with disaster written all
over her girlish, truthful face, "but--but--you know--it really wouldn't
be quite right to Lord Beverdale. You're his principal guest--you know,
and--they'd think I had taken you off."

"Well," said Miss Desborough impetuously, "what's the matter with that
inn--the Red Lion? We can get a sandwich there, I guess. I'm not VERY
hungry."

Miss Amelyn looked horrified for a moment, and then laughed; but
immediately became concerned again. "No! listen to me, REALLY now! Let
me finish my round alone! You'll have ample time if you go NOW to reach
the Priory for luncheon. Do, please! It would be ever so much better for
everybody. I feel quite guilty as it is, and I suppose I am already in
Lord Beverdale's black books."

The trouble in the young girl's face was unmistakable, and as it suited
Miss Desborough's purpose just as well to show her independence by
returning, as she had set out, alone, she consented to go. Miss Amelyn
showed her a short cut across the park, and they separated--to meet at
dinner. In this brief fellowship, the American girl had kept a certain
supremacy and half-fascination over the English girl, even while she was
conscious of an invincible character in Miss Amelyn entirely different
from and superior to her own. Certainly there was a difference in the
two peoples. Why else this inherited conscientious reverence for Lord
Beverdale's position, shown by Miss Amelyn, which she, an American alive
to its practical benefits, could not understand? Would Miss Amelyn and
Lord Algernon have made a better match? The thought irritated her, even
while she knew that she herself possessed the young man's affections,
the power to marry him, and, as she be