full of her, in just
the same way, when Lady Lydiard had done.

"Yes," he remarked quietly, "Miss Isabel is an uncommonly nice girl, as
you say. Very pretty, and such frank, unaffected manners. I don't deny
that I feel an interest in her. The young ladies one meets in society
are not much to my taste. Miss Isabel is my taste."

Lady Lydiard's face assumed a look of blank dismay. "I am afraid I have
failed to convey my exact meaning to you," she said.

Hardyman gravely declared that he understood her perfectly. "Perfectly!"
he repeated, with his impenetrable obstinacy. "Your Ladyship exactly
expresses my opinion of Miss Isabel. Prudent, and cheerful, and
sweet-tempered, as you say--all the qualities in a woman that I admire.
With good looks, too--of course, with good looks. She will be a perfect
treasure (as you remarked just now) to the man who marries her. I may
claim to know something about it. I have twice narrowly escaped being
married myself; and, though I can't exactly explain it, I'm all the
harder to please in consequence. Miss Isabel pleases me. I think I
have said that before? Pardon me for saying it again. I'll call again
to-morrow morning and look at the dog as early as eleven o'clock, if you
will allow me. Later in the day I must be off to France to attend a sale
of horses. Glad to have been of any use to your Ladyship, I am sure.
Good-morning."

Lady Lydiard let him go, wisely resigning any further attempt to
establish an understanding between her visitor and herself.

"He is either a person of very limited intelligence when he is away from
his stables," she thought, "or he deliberately declines to take a plain
hint when it is given to him. I can't drop his acquaintance, on Tommie's
account. The only other alternative is to keep Isabel out of his way. My
good little girl shall not drift into a false position while I am living
to look after her. When Mr. Hardyman calls to-morrow she shall be out
on an errand. When he calls the next time she shall be upstairs with a
headache. And if he tries it again she shall be away at my house in the
country. If he makes any remarks on her absence--well, he will find that
I can be just as dull of understanding as he is when the occasion calls
for it."

Having arrived at this satisfactory solution of the difficulty, Lady
Lydiard became conscious of an irresistible impulse to summon Isabel to
her presence and caress her. In the nature of a warm-hearted woman,
this wa