s, and boast about our successes in
life--ah, it will be very pleasant!"

"You will come too, my Brigit," whispered Theo under his breath. "I can
show them my wonderful--wife?"

She could not answer, and he took her distress for girlish confusion,
and, manlike, rejoiced in it.

After dinner Joyselle came straight to her. "May I talk to you about
Tommy?" he began, "I love Tommy very much."

"He--adores you."

"Yes. Let us go into the library, Most Beautiful, where we can talk
quietly." Before she could protest he had turned to her mother and
announced his intention. "I leave to-morrow, before she will be up," he
declared, "and there are things I must say. You allow me, Lady
Kingsmead?"

Then he put his arm round the girl's waist and marched her down the hall
and up the stairs leading to the library.

"Isn't he quaint?" giggled Lady Kingsmead to the Duchess, and the old
woman assented with a laugh. "He is an amazing mixture of the boyish and
the paternal. I thoroughly like him."

Meantime Brigit had sat down in a tall-backed carved chair, and, her
hands on its arms, waited for Joyselle to speak. He walked about the
room for a few moments, looking up at the book-covered walls, opening
one of the windows, examining an ivory dragon that grinned on the
chimney-piece. Then he burst out, "_Eh, bien_, my dearest, and when is
it to be?"

"When is what to be?"

"The wedding."

A hot blush crept over her, leaving her cold.

"Theo wants his wife, and I want my daughter," he continued, sitting
down by her and taking her hand affectionately, "why waste time!"

She looked at him in hopeless dismay. He was so big, so strong, so
overpowering, she felt that her strength to resist his will was as
nothing.

"You think I ask too soon?" He looked at her, an anxious pucker in his
eyelids, "But no. There is never too much time in which to be happy, ma
Brigitte----"

For the first time in her recollection she was glad to see Gerald
Carron, as he came up the stairs, and approached them slowly.

"Does mother want me?" she asked, rising.

"No. I--just wondered what you were doing."

"I brought Lady Brigit here because I wanted to talk to her," explained
Joyselle, mildly. Carron laughed.

"So do I want to talk to her!"

Brigit gave a nervous laugh. "Let's all go downstairs and talk there. My
conversation isn't usually so appreciated."

The two men followed her in silence, and to her immense relief were both
promptly acc