st, and in the valley you can
see a river, winding in and out like gleams of quicksilver. A grand old
place is Houghton Castle, let me answer you, Lady Clara."

Clara shook her head, and drew back in her seat.

"I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that the dear old lady could just
take the title and the castle with her."

She seemed very much in earnest, and pulled the sailor's hat down over
her eyes, to conceal the tears, that were filling them with moisture.

Lord Hilton was surprised. He had certainly intended to interest the
young lady by a description of the noble place that would some day be
hers.

"Ah, wait till you have seen Houghton. It is one of the finest old
strongholds in the kingdom. The only wonder is that Cromwell, that
magnificent old hypocrite, happened to spare it. When Lady Carset stands
upon her own battlements, she can scarcely see the extent of her lands.
A very wealthy lady is the old countess."

Clara all at once began to wonder how it happened that the man was
giving her so much knowledge about her own near relative. How did he
know that her information did not equal his own?

"You live near Houghton, I suppose?" she said.

"Yes; when the flag is up, we can see it plainly enough from my
grandfather's place."

Clara brightened out of her momentary depression. If she were compelled
to stay long at Houghton, it would be pleasant to meet this handsome and
pleasant young man. How kind he had been about the fruit. With what
genial sunshine his eyes dwelt upon her, as he sought to interest her
about the place to which she was going. Judson was not so well pleased.
She had some doubts of the propriety of permitting these young persons
to drop into such familiar conversation, with no more impressive
introduction than the chance courtesies of a railroad car.

True, she had known the young man when he was quite a child, and liked
him, as well as her prim habits and narrow channel of thought would
permit; but nothing in her experience had taught her how to act in an
emergency like that.

The young people had given her no opportunity for reflection, but
plunged into an acquaintance at once. The whole thing troubled her
greatly, but what could she do?

There they sat, face to face, eating peaches together, talking of the
scenery, laughing now and then, again and again half quarreling, as if a
dozen years had ripened the acquaintance between them. It quite took
away her appetite for the fruit,