was his universal cry.

When Leone expressed any anxiety or sorrow over his separation from his
parents, he would laugh and answer:

"Never mind, my darling, it will be all right when I am of age. Never
mind, darling, you will have my mother asking for the pleasure of
knowing you then--the tables will be turned; let the great world once
see you, and you will be worshiped for your beauty, your grace, and your
talent."

She looked wistfully at him.

"Do they love beauty so much in your world, Lance?" she asked.

"Yes, as a rule, a beautiful face has a wonderful influence. I have
known women without a tithe of your beauty, Leone, rise from quite
third-rate society to find a place among the most exclusive and noblest
people in the land. Your face would win for you, darling, an entrance
anywhere."

"The only thing I want my face to do," she said, "is to please your
mother."

"And that, when she sees it, it is quite sure to do," replied the
lover-husband.

"Lance," said Lady Chandos, "what shall we do if your parents will
neither forgive us nor see us?"

"It will be very uncomfortable," said Lord Chandos; "but we shall have
to bear it. It will not much matter so far as worldly matters are
concerned; when I am of age I shall have a separate and very handsome
fortune of my own. My mother will soon want to know you when you become
the fashion--as you will, Leone."

So she dismissed the future from her mind. She would not think of it.
She had blind reliance, blind confidence in her husband; he seemed so
carelessly happy and indifferent she could not think there was anything
vitally wrong. She was so unutterably happy, so wonderfully, thoroughly
happy. Her life was a poem, the sweetest love-story ever written or
sung.

"Why am I so happy?" she would ask herself at times; "why has Heaven
given me so much? all I ever asked for--love and happiness?"

She did not know how to be grateful enough.

One morning in autumn, a warm, beautiful morning, when the sun shone on
the rich red and brown foliage--they were out together on the fair
river--the tide was rising and the boat floated lazily on the stream.
Lady Chandos wore a beautiful dress of amber and black that suited her
dark, brilliant beauty to perfection. She lay back among the velvet
cushions, smiling as her eyes lingered on the sky, the trees, the
stream.

"You look very happy, Leone," said Lord Chandos.

"I am very happy," she replied. "I wrote to my uncle ye