ich constitute the great charm of private life.'

The stock verbiage of the family memoir was somewhat apparent in this
effusion; but it much impressed his listeners; and he went on to
point out that from the lady's necklace was suspended a heart-shaped
portrait--that of the man who broke his heart by her persistent refusal
to encourage his suit. De Stancy then led them a little further, where
hung a portrait of the lover, one of his own family, who appeared in
full panoply of plate mail, the pommel of his sword standing up under
his elbow. The gallant captain then related how this personage of his
line wooed the lady fruitlessly; how, after her marriage with another,
she and her husband visited the parents of the disappointed lover, the
then occupiers of the castle; how, in a fit of desperation at the
sight of her, he retired to his room, where he composed some passionate
verses, which he wrote with his blood, and after directing them to her
ran himself through the body with his sword. Too late the lady's heart
was touched by his devotion; she was ever after a melancholy woman, and
wore his portrait despite her husband's prohibition. 'This,' continued
De Stancy, leading them through the doorway into the hall where the
coats of mail were arranged along the wall, and stopping opposite a
suit which bore some resemblance to that of the portrait, 'this is his
armour, as you will perceive by comparing it with the picture, and this
is the sword with which he did the rash deed.'

'What unreasonable devotion!' said Paula practically. 'It was too
romantic of him. She was not worthy of such a sacrifice.'

'He also is one whom they say you resemble a little in feature, I
think,' said Charlotte.

'Do they?' replied De Stancy. 'I wonder if it's true.' He set down the
candles, and asking the girls to withdraw for a moment, was inside the
upper part of the suit of armour in incredibly quick time. Going
then and placing himself in front of a low-hanging painting near the
original, so as to be enclosed by the frame while covering the figure,
arranging the sword as in the one above, and setting the light that it
might fall in the right direction, he recalled them; when he put the
question, 'Is the resemblance strong?'

He looked so much like a man of bygone times that neither of them
replied, but remained curiously gazing at him. His modern and
comparatively sallow complexion, as seen through the open visor, lent an
ethereal idealit