s about it."

"Not _too_ serious. It is very important."

"Oh, Barbara, do you _know_ what you are saying?" cries the girl with an
angry little stamp, turning to her a face pale and indignant. "You have
been telling me in so many words that I am in love with either Mr.
Beauclerk or Mr. Dysart. Pray now, for a change, tell me which of them
is in love with _me_."

"Mr. Dysart," says Barbara quietly.

Her sister laughs angrily.

"You think everybody who looks at me is in love with me."

"Not _every_one!"

"Meaning Mr. Beauclerk."

"No," slowly. "I think he likes you, too, but he is a man who will
always _think_. You know he has come in for that property in Hampshire
through his uncle's death, but he got no money with it. It is a large
place, impossible to keep up without a large income, and his uncle left
every penny away from him. It is in great disrepair, the house
especially. I hear it is falling to pieces. Mr. Beauclerk is an
ambitious man, he will seek means to rebuild his house."

"Well what of that? It is an interesting bit of history, but how does it
concern me? Take that troubled look out of your eyes, Barbara. I assure
you Mr. Beauclerk is as little to me as I am to him."

She speaks with such evident sincerity, with such an undeniable belief
in the truth of her own words, that Mrs. Monkton, looking at her and
reading her soul through her clear eyes, feels a weight lifted from her
heart.

"That is all right then," says she simply. She turns as if to go away,
but Miss Kavanagh has still a word or two to say.

"I may go to the Court?" says she.

"Yes; I suppose so."

"But you won't be vexed if I go, Barbie?"

"No; not now."

"Well," slipping her arm through hers, with an audible sigh of delight.
"_That's_ settled."

"Things generally _do_ get settled the way you want them to be," says
Mrs. Monkton, laughing. "Come, what about your frocks, eh?"

From this out they spend a most enjoyable hour or two.

CHAPTER VI.

"Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, thinking the winter's near."

The visit to the Court being decided on, Miss Kavanagh undertakes life
afresh, with a joyous heart. Lord and Lady Baltimore are the best host
and hostess in the world, and a visit to them means unmixed pleasure
while it lasts. The Court is, indeed, the pleasantest house in the
county, the most desirable in all respects, and the gayest. Yet, strange
and sad to add, ha