lights of a Tory Cabinet, and laughed. So, to his relief, did Lord
Maxwell.

"Well, don't let her fall into young Wharton's clutches, Aldous, or he
will be setting her to canvas. So, she is beautiful and she is
clever--and _good_, my boy? If she comes here, she will have to fill
your mother's and your grandmother's place."

Aldous tried to reply once or twice, but failed.

"If I did not feel that she were everything in herself to be loved and
respected"--he said at last with some formality--"I should not long, as
I do, to bring you and her together."

Silence fell again. But instinctively Aldous felt that his grandfather's
mood had grown gentler--his own task easier. He seized on the moment at
once.

"In the whole business," he said, half smiling, "there is only one thing
clear, grandfather, and that is, that, if you will, you can do me a
great service with Miss Boyce."

Lord Maxwell turned quickly and was all sharp attention, the keen
commanding eyes under their fine brows absorbing, as it were, expression
and life from the rest of the blanched and wrinkled face.

"You could, if you would, make matters easy for her and her mother in
the county," said Aldous, anxious to carry it off lightly. "You could,
if you would, without committing yourself to any personal contact with
Boyce himself, make it possible for me to bring her here, so that you
and my aunt might see her and judge."

The old man's expression darkened.

"What, take back that note, Aldous! I never wrote anything with greater
satisfaction in my life!"

"Well,--more or less," said Aldous, quietly. "A very little would do it.
A man in Richard Boyce's position will naturally not claim very
much--will take what he can get."

"And you mean besides," said his grandfather, interrupting him, "that I
must send your aunt to call?"

"It will hardly be possible to ask Miss Boyce here unless she does!"
said Aldous.

"And you reckon that I am not likely to go to Mellor, even to see her?
And you want me to say a word to other people--to the Winterbournes and
the Levens, for instance?"

"Precisely," said Aldous.

Lord Maxwell meditated; then rose.

"Let me now appease the memory of Clarke by going to bed!" (Clarke was
his lordship's medical attendant and autocrat.) "I must sleep upon this,
Aldous."

"I only hope I shall not have tired you out."

Aldous moved to extinguish a lamp standing on a table near.

Suddenly his grandfather called him.

"Aldo