udging from those
quotations, and the article, it's Mr. Lashmar from beginning to end."

"Then it's a most curious case of coincidence. Poor Mr. Lashmar will
naturally be vexed. It's hard upon him, isn't it?"

May did not at once respond. The friend, watching her with the roguish
smile, let fall another piece of intelligence.

"I hear that his marriage is to be in the autumn."

"Indeed?" said May, indifferently.

"Between ourselves," pursued the other, "didn't you feel just a little
surprised?"

"Surprised?"

"At his choice. Oh, don't misunderstand me. I quite appreciate Miss
Bride's cleverness and seriousness. But one couldn't help thinking that
a man of Mr. Lashmar's promise--. Perhaps you don't see it in that way?"

"I really think they are rather well suited," said May, again calmly
supercilious.

"It may be so. I had almost thought that--how shall I express it?" Mrs.
Toplady searched for a moment. "Perhaps Lady Ogram might have made a
suggestion, which Mr. Lashmar, for some reason, did not feel able to
disregard. He has quite a chivalrous esteem for Lady Ogram, haven't you
noticed? I like to see it. That kind of thing is rare nowadays. No
doubt he feels reason for gratitude; but how many men does one know who
can be truly grateful? That's what I like in Mr. Lashmar; he has
character as well as intellect."

"But how do you mean, Mrs. Toplady?" inquired May, losing something of
her polish in curiosity. "Why should my aunt have wanted him to marry
Miss Bride?"

"Ah, that I don't know. Possibly she thought it, knowing him as she
does, really the best thing for him. Possibly--one could make
conjectures. But one always can."

May puzzled over the hint, her brow knitted; Mrs. Toplady regarded her
with veiled amusement, wondering whether it would really be necessary
to use plainer words. The girl was not dull, but perhaps her small
experience of life, and her generally naive habit of mind, obscured to
her what to the more practised was so obvious.

"Do you mean," said May, diffidently, "that she planned it out of
kindness to Miss Bride? Of course I know that she likes Miss Bride very
much. Perhaps she thought there would never be a better opportunity."

"It might be so," replied the other, absently.

"Miss Bride is very nice, and very clever," pursued May, sounding the
words on the thinnest possible note. "But one didn't think of her as
very likely to marry."

"No; it seemed improbable."

There was a