oing out again in the evening; and I was so
restless I did not the least grudge the trouble of dressing, or
anything to take me away from my own thoughts. But all the afternoon
and all the evening I made up my mind that I would give up Frank
Lovell. A little resolution was all that was needed. It was plain he
did not _really_ care for me. Why, he wasn't even in London, though he
knew quite well I had been there more than a week. Very likely I
shouldn't see him all the winter, and my heart sank as I thought how
much easier this would make my sacrifice. At all events, I determined,
when I did see him, to be cold, and demure, and unmoved--to show him
unmistakably that I belonged to another; in which Spartan frame of
mind I betook myself to the French play.

Alas, alas! Well may the bard complain,--

"Woman's vows are writ in water;
Woman's faith is traced in sand."

Who should be in the back of the box but Frank Lovell himself!
Mischievous Mrs. Lumley, was this your doing? Before I went away I had
promised to meet him next morning in the park, and he was to _explain
all_.

CHAPTER XVII.

I hope I have as much command of countenance as falls to the lot of
any lady who don't paint; but when I returned from my walk in the Park
the following morning I must have looked flushed or excited, or in
some way different from usual. I met John at the corner of Lowndes
Street, and he stopped short, and looked me piercingly in the face.

"Where have you been, Kate?" said he, without waiting to bid me
"good-morning" or anything.

"A little stroll in the Park, John," was my reply.

"By yourself?" he asked, and his face looked pale and grave.

I cannot tell a story, so I hesitated and stammered,--

"No, not exactly--at least I met an acquaintance near the Serpentine."

"Have you any objection to telling me who it was?" said John, and his
voice sounded very strange.

"Good gracious! what's the matter?" I asked, in my turn. "Has anything
happened? Are you ill, John? you look quite upset."

"I insist upon knowing," answered he, without taking the slightest
notice of my tender inquiries after his health.

"Did you or did you not meet Captain Lovel this morning in Hyde Park?"

"Yes, I certainly _did_ meet him," I replied.

"Accidentally?" exclaimed my cousin.

"Why--no--not entirely," was my answer; "but the fact is----"

"Enough!" burst out John, breaking in upon my explanations with a
rudeness I had never