Lady Anna might the better comprehend
the difference between her own position and that of the tailor. The
girls were told nothing of the tailor,--lest the disgrace of so
unnatural a partiality might shock their young minds; but they
were instructed that there was danger, and that they were always,
in speaking to their guest, to take it for granted that she was
to become Countess Lovel. Her maid, Sarah, went with her to the
Serjeant's, and was taken into a half-confidence. Lady Anna was never
to be left a moment alone. She was to be a prisoner with gilded
chains,--for whom a splendid, a glorious future was in prospect, if
only she would accept it.

"I really think that she likes the lord the best," said Mrs.
Bluestone to her husband.

"Then why the mischief won't she have him?" This was in October, and
that November term was fast approaching in which the cause was set
down for trial.

"I almost think she would if he'd come and ask her again. Of course,
I have never mentioned the other man; but when I speak to her of Earl
Lovel, she always answers me as though she were almost in love with
him. I was inquiring yesterday what sort of a man he was, and she
said he was quite perfect. 'It is a thousand pities,' she said, 'that
he should not have this money. He ought to have it, as he is the
Earl.'"

"Why doesn't she give it to him?"

"I asked her that; but she shook, her head and said, that it could
never be. I think that man has made her swear some sort of awful
oath, and has frightened her."

"No doubt he has made her swear an oath, but we all know how the gods
regard the perjuries of lovers," said the Serjeant. "We must get the
young lord here when he comes back to town."

"Is he handsome?" asked Alice Bluestone, the younger daughter, who
had become Lady Anna's special friend in the family. Of course they
were talking of Lord Lovel.

"Everybody says he is."

"But what do you say?"

"I don't think it matters much about a man being handsome,--but he is
beautiful. Not dark, like all the other Lovels; nor yet what you call
fair. I don't think that fair men ever look manly."

"Oh no," said Alice, who was contemplating an engagement with a
black-haired young barrister.

"Lord Lovel is brown,--with blue eyes; but it is the shape of his
face that is so perfect,--an oval, you know, that is not too long.
But it isn't that makes him look as he does. He looks as though
everybody in the world ought to do exactly what h