have done for me, Lord Walderhurst."

They moved a trifle nearer to each other, this inarticulate pair. He
dropped his eyeglass and patted her shoulder.

"Say 'Walderhurst' or 'James'--or--or 'my dear,'" he said. "We are going
to be married, you know." And he found himself going to the length of
kissing her cheek with some warmth.

"I sometimes wish," she said feelingly, "that it was the fashion to say
'my lord' as Lady Castlewood used to do in 'Esmond.' I always thought it
nice."

"Women are not so respectful to their husbands in these days," he
answered, with his short laugh. "And men are not so dignified."

"Lord Castlewood was not very dignified, was he?"

He chuckled a little.

"No. But his rank was, in the reign of Queen Anne. These are democratic
days. I'll call you 'my lady' if you like."

"Oh! No--no!" with fervour, "I wasn't thinking of anything like that."

"I know you were not," he reassured her. "You are not that kind of
woman."

"Oh! how _could_ I be?"

"_You_ couldn't," good-naturedly. "That's why I like you."

Then he began to tell her his reason for calling at this particular
hour. He came to prepare her for a visit from the Osborns, who had
actually just returned from India. Captain Osborn had chosen, or chance
had chosen for him, this particular time for a long leave. As soon as
she heard the name of Osborn, Emily's heart beat a little quickly. She
had naturally learned a good deal of detail from Lady Maria since her
engagement. Alec Osborn was the man who, since Lord Walderhurst's
becoming a widower, had lived in the gradually strengthening belief that
the chances were that it would be his enormous luck to inherit the title
and estates of the present Marquis of Walderhurst. He was not a very
near relation, but he was the next of kin. He was a young man and a
strong one, and Walderhurst was fifty-four and could not be called
robust. His medical man did not consider him a particularly good life,
though he was not often ill.

"He's not the kind of chap who lives to be a hundred and fifty. I'll say
that for him," Alec Osborn had said at mess after dinner had made him
careless of speech, and he had grinned not too pleasantly when he
uttered the words. "The only thing that would completely wipe my eye
isn't as likely to happen to him as to most men. He's unsentimental and
level headed, and doesn't like marriage. You can imagine how he's
chivied by women. A fellow in his position couldn't b