ere was something singular about the lady; her large,
black eyes illumined the whole face with a glow of proud triumph that
seemed to have uplifted her whole being. It was this brilliant seeming
of happiness which at first baffled Lord Hilton; for after the lady had
been seated awhile, she probably began to feel the restraints of a
stranger's presence, for a fit of thoughtful lassitude crept over her,
and her eyelids began to droop.

He remembered the face, now. One night he had seen it at the opera,
leaning against the crimson lining of the box, paler by far than now;
but the beautiful outlines were the same, though that face had been
still and passive, while this was irradiated even in its rest.

Turning his face from the lady, Lord Hilton encountered a face that he
knew in the tall and distinguished-looking man who accompanied her.

"Lord Hope, this is a pleasure," he said, holding out his hand. "The
last I heard of you was in Scotland."

"Yes, we found the shooting good, and staid longer than usual; but I
fancied you were down at the old place."

"And so I was, but these railways send a man from one end of the
universe to another so rapidly that one does not know where to date
from. I have been up to London for a day or two, and am on my way back
again."

Here Lady Hope lifted her slumberous eyelids, and was introduced.

The sweet, alluring smile that we have seen on the face of Rachael Closs
had come back to it now.

"I should almost have known Lord Hilton," she said, "from Lady Clara's
description. She was indeed fortunate in chancing upon you for a
travelling companion."

"I have that great kindness to thank you for, Hilton," said Lord Hope.
"Clara's letters were full of your adventures on the road and at
Houghton. I did not know that you had left the neighborhood, though."

"I think myself more than fortunate," said Hilton, addressing Lady Hope,
"in having the honor of introducing two such ladies to the castle, for I
take it you are going to Houghton."

"Oh, yes, of course; it was impossible to refuse Lady Carset. We shall
be at the castle some time, I am glad to say."

How her magnificent eyes flashed. The very bend of her head was regal,
as she thus announced a triumph she had been toiling for ever since she
had become Lord Hope's wife.

The scorn of that old woman at Houghton, had been the bane of her
existence. Like an interdict of the Pope in olden times, it had kept her
apart from the peopl