e.'

'Your Aunt Catharine delighted, of course? No doubt of that; but what
has come to Lady Conway?'

'She cannot help it, and makes the best of it. She gave us very little
trouble.'

'Ah! her own daughter is growing up,' said the Earl, significantly.

'Isabel is very fond of Northwold,' said Mary, feeling that Louis was
wanting her sympathy. 'She used to wish she could settle there--with
how little consciousness!'

'If I had to judge in such a case,' said Lord Ormersfield,
thoughtfully, 'I should hesitate to risk a woman's happiness with a
temper such as that of James Frost.'

'Oh, father!' cried Louis, indignantly.

'I suspect,' said Lord Ormersfield, smiling, 'that of late years,
James's temper has been more often displayed towards me than towards
you.'

'A certain proof how safe his wife will be,' returned Louis.

His father shook his head, and looking from one to the other of the
young people, congratulated himself that here, at least, there were no
perils of that description. He asked how long the attachment had
existed.

'From the moment of first sight,' said Louis; 'the fine spark was
lighted on the Euston Square platform; and it was not much later with
her. He filled up her beau ideal of goodness--'

'And, in effect, all Lady Conway's pursuit of you threw them together,'
said Lord Ormersfield, much entertained.

'Lady Conway has been their very best friend, without intending it. It
would not have come to a crisis by this time, if she had not taken me
to Paris. It would have been a pity if the catastrophe of the
barricades had been all for nothing.'

Lord Ormersfield and Mary here broke out in amazement at themselves,
for having hitherto been oblivious of the intelligence that had greeted
them on their first arrival, when Frampton had informed them of Lord
Fitzjocelyn's wound and gallant conduct, and his father had listened to
the story like the fastening of a rivet in Miss Conway's chains, and
Mary with a flush of unselfish pride that Isabel had been taught to
value her hero. They both claimed the true and detailed account, as if
they had hitherto been defrauded of it, and insisted on hearing what
had happened to him.

'I dare say you know best,' said Louis, lazily. 'I have heard so many
different accounts of late, that I really am beginning to forget which
is the right one, and rather incline to the belief that Delaford
brought a rescue or two with his revolver, and carried us into a