some good,
and it might just do the other thing. It is too dangerous to interfere."

"Well, you have made me thoroughly uncomfortable," Lady Anningford said.
"I shall get hold of him to-night, and see what I can do."

"Then, mind you are careful, Queen Anne--that is all that I can say,"
and at that moment, the Duke joining them, the tete-a-tete broke up.

Zara had not appeared at tea. She said she was very tired, and would
rest until dinner. If she had been there, her uncle had meant to take
her aside into one of the smaller sitting-rooms, and tell her the piece
of information he deemed it now advisable for her to know; but as she
did not appear, or Tristram, either, he thought after all they might be
together, and his interference would be unnecessary. But he decided, if
he saw the same frigid state of things at dinner, he would certainly
speak to her after it; and relieved from duty, he went once more to
find his lady love in her sitting-room.

"Francis!" she whispered, as he held her next his heart for a moment.
"You must not stay ten minutes, for Lady Anningford or Lady Melton is
sure to come in--Anne, especially, who has been looking at me with such
reproachful eyes, for having neglected her all this, our last
afternoon."

"I care not for a thousand Annes, Ethelrida mine!" he said softly, as he
kissed her. "If she does come, will it matter? Would you rather she did
not guess anything yet, my dearest?"

"Yes--" said Ethelrida, "--I don't want any one to know, until you have
told my father,--will you do so to-night--or wait until to-morrow? I--I
can't--I feel so shy--and he will be so surprised." She did not add her
secret fear that her parent might be very angry.

They had sat down upon the sofa now, under the light of their kindly
gray owl; and Francis Markrute contented himself with caressing his
lady's hair, as he answered:

"I thought of asking the Duke, if I might stay until the afternoon
train, as I had something important to discuss with him, and then wait
and see him quietly, when all the others have gone, if that is what you
would wish, my sweet. I will do exactly as you desire about all things.
I want you to understand that. You are to have your own way in
everything in life."

"You know very well that I should never want it, if it differed from
yours, Francis." What music he found in his name! "You are so very wise,
it will be divine to let you guide me!" Which tender speech showed that
the ge