suggestion?"

"You should think. You should think," says Lady Baltimore, with some
agitation. "She is a very young girl. She has lived entirely in the
country. She knows nothing--nothing," throwing out her hand. "She is not
awake to all the intriguing, lying, falsity," with a rush of bitter
disgust, "that belongs to the bigger world beyond--the terrible world
outside her own quiet one here."

"She is quiet here, isn't she?" says Beauclerk, with admirable
appreciation. "Pity to take her out of it. Eh? And yet, so far as I can
see, that is the cruel task you would impose on me."

"Norman," says his sister, turning suddenly and for the first time
directly toward him.

"Well, my dear. What?" throwing one leg negligently over the other. "It
really comes to this, doesn't it? That you want me to marry a certain
somebody, and that I think I cannot afford to marry her. Then it lies in
the proverbial nutshell."

"The man who cannot afford to marry should not afford himself the
pleasures of flirtations," says Lady Baltimore, with decision.

"No? Is that your final opinion? Good heavens! Isabel, what a brow! What
a terrible glance! If," smiling, "you favor Baltimore with this style of
thing whenever you disapprove of his smallest action I don't wonder he
jibs so often at the matrimonial collar. You advised me to think just
now; think yourself, my good Isabel, now and then, and probably you will
find life easier."

He is still smiling delightfully. He flings out this cruel gibe indeed
in the most careless manner possible.

"Ah! forget me," says she in a manner as careless as his own. If she has
quivered beneath that thrust of his, at all events she has had strength
enough to suppress all signs of it. "Think--not of her--I daresay she
will outlive it--but of yourself."

"What would you have me do then?" demands he, rising here and
confronting her. There is a good deal of venom in his handsome face, but
Lady Baltimore braves it.

"I would have you act as an honorable man," says she, in a clear, if icy
tone.

"You go pretty far, Isabel, very far, even for a sister," says he
presently, his face now white with rage. "A moment ago I gave you some
sound advice. I give you more now. Attend to your own affairs, which by
all account require looking after, and let mine alone."

He is evidently furious. His sister makes a little gesture towards the
door.

"Your taking it like this does not mend matters," she says calmly, "it
o