is to papa. It wouldn't be fair to betray Major
Fane!"

Mrs. Rolleston was only too convinced, and replied, "that she should
consider it Cecil's secret, and say nothing about it." Whereupon the
damsel ran merrily off, humming the air, "I told them they needn't come
wooing to me." But, arrived in her own room, her evanescent high spirits
vanished, and a bitter and clear-sighted mood succeeded. "Bertie," she
thought, "your evil influence is over us all. Mamma, till now the truest
of step-mothers, is only thinking of ensuring you my fortune. I disoblige
papa, send away a true love, hate Bluebell for her too attractive soft
eyes, am harassed by doubts even of you--is it worth it? I might yet
recall Lucian Fane; he is very calm, and would not expect too much. What
folly! No, if I am to be miserable, it must be my own way, with the only
man who interests me heart and soul. I suppose, if we marry, I may reckon
on one year of happiness, though hardly any one who knew Bertie would
expect him to be constant even for that time. But by then I should have
got immense influence, for, though I am not clever and attractive like
him, I have far more will, and, in the long run, it is character more
than talent that shapes our life. If Bluebell would only go to England!"

Then she detached from the wall and began to pack up a little possession
that always travelled with her. It was only an old print of a cavalier,
and no one but Cecil had observed that a twin soul to Bertie's looked out
of its dreaming eyes.

CHAPTER XVIII.

LYNDON'S LANDING.

All the fairy crowds
Of islands that together lie
As quietly as spots of sky
Among the evening clouds.
--Unknown.

Bluebell had begun to feel herself in a false position. Freddy's lessons
were, of course, a farce; and Cecil now seemed never to care to practise
with her. Miss Prosody, with every hour of the day marked out for herself
and pupils, made sarcastic reflections on her want of occupation; but,
unhappy though she was, she could not make up her mind to leave the
Rollestons, and thus dissever the chief link with Bertie. Besides, she
had heard (a piece of information derived from Fleda) that he was shortly
expected to join them at Rice Lake. Therefore, when Mrs. Rolleston
unfolded the project of sending her to England to cultivate the musical
predilections of Evelyn Leighton, Bluebell showed such repugnance to the
scheme, that Mrs. Rolleston d