ell you;
stupid wills are broken every day of the week, and I don't think the
Jesuits are in such favor in England that a jury would decide for them
against an English youth of the kith and kin of the testator."

"You speak cleverly, Miss Graham, and you show that you know all the
value that attaches to popular sympathy in the age we live in."

"And don't you agree with me?"

"Ah, there's a deal to be said on either side."

"Then, for Heaven's sake, don't say it. There--no--more to the
left--there, where you see the blue smoke rising over the rocks--there
stands the widow's cottage. I don't know how she endures the loneliness
of it. Could _you_ face such a life?"

"A double solitude--what the French call an _egoisme a deux_--is not so
insupportable. In fact, it all depends upon 'the partner with whom we
share our isolation.'" He threw a tone of half tenderness into the words
that made them very significant, and Rebecca gave him one of her quick
sudden glances with which she often read a secret motive. This time,
however, she failed. There was nothing in that sallow but handsome face
that revealed a clew to anything.

"I 'll have to ask Mrs. Butler's leave before I present you," said she,
suddenly.

"Of course, I 'll await her permission."

"The chances are she'll say no; indeed, it is all but certain she will."

"Then I must resign myself to patience and a cigar till you come out
again," said he, calmly.

"Shall I say that there's any reason for your visit? Do you know any
Butlers, or have you any relationship, real or pretended, with the
family, that would make a pretext for coming to see her?"

Had Miss Graham only glanced as keenly at Maitland's features now as she
had a few moments back, she might have seen a faint, a very faint, flush
cross his cheek, and then give way to a deep paleness. "No," said he,
coldly, "I cannot pretend the shadow of a claim to her acquaintance, and
I can scarcely presume to ask you to present me as a friend of your own,
except in the common acceptation given to the word."

"Oh, I'll do that readily enough. Bless your heart, if there was
anything to be gained by it, I 'd call you my cousin, and address you as
Norman all the time of the visit."

"If you but knew how the familiarity would flatter me, particularly were
I to return it!"

"And call _me_ Becky,--I hope! Well, you _are_ a cool hand!"

"My friends are in the habit of amusing themselves with my diffidence
and my