her mother had any other wishes on such a subject than her own. The fact
is, I answered Lady Montfort originally only half in earnest. If the
thing might have happened, I should have been content--but it really
never rested on my mind, because such matters must always originate with
my daughter. Unless they come from her, with me they are mere fancies.
But now I want you to help me in another matter, if not more grave, more
businesslike. My lord must be amused, although it is a family party.
He likes his rubber; that we can manage. But there must be two or three
persons that he is not accustomed to meet, and yet who will interest
him. Now, do you know, Miss Ferrars, whom I think of asking?"

"Not I, my dear sir."

"What do you think of the colonel?" said Mr. Neuchatel, looking in her
face with a rather laughing eye.

"Well, he is very agreeable," said Myra, "and many would think
interesting, and if Lord Roehampton does not know him, I think he would
do very well."

"Well, but Lord Roehampton knows all about him," said Mr. Neuchatel.

"Well, that is an advantage," said Myra.

"I do not know," said Mr. Neuchatel. "Life is a very curious thing, eh,
Miss Ferrars? One cannot ask one person to meet another even in one's
own home, without going through a sum of moral arithmetic."

"Is it so?" said Myra.

"Well, Miss Ferrars," said Mr. Neuchatel, "I want your advice and I want
your aid; but then it is a long story, at which I am rather a bad hand,"
and Mr. Neuchatel hesitated. "You know," he said, suddenly resuming,
"you once asked me who Colonel Albert was."

"But I do not ask you now," said Myra, "because I know."

"Hah, hah!" exclaimed Mr. Neuchatel, much surprised.

"And what you want to know is," continued Myra, "whether Lord Roehampton
would have any objection to meet Prince Florestan?"

"That is something; but that is comparatively easy. I think I can manage
that. But when they meet--that is the point. But, in the first place,
I should like very much to know how you became acquainted with the
secret."

"In a very natural way; my brother was my information," she replied.

"Ah! now you see," continued Mr. Neuchatel, with a serious air, "a word
from Lord Roehampton in the proper quarter might be of vast importance
to the prince. He has a large inheritance, and he has been kept out of
it unjustly. Our house has done what we could for him, for his mother,
Queen Agrippina, was very kind to my father, and the