ng glance at his cousin.

"To be sure--so it is Miss Leigh. I thought last night I knew the face--"

"Why don't you go and speak to her?"

"I am shy--perhaps she won't remember me."

"Miss Leigh, Mr. Dutton thinks you have forgotten him."

Bluebell bowed stiffly, very much on her guard; for she saw that Lord
Bromley was an attentive observer, and his strange behaviour in the
morning had given rise to an uncomfortable suspicion that he might
(though how, she could not imagine) be cognizant of the tryst in the West
Wood. Harry moved to a seat near, and began an indifferent conversation
with her, that the whole room might have heard.

"Can it be all--kid," thought Kate, "or was there really nothing between
them?"

At that instant Sir Robert lounged up, and threw himself in a familiar
manner on the other side of Bluebell.

Dutton's face darkened. He had taken an antipathy to this man, who
commenced a sort of condescending flirtation with his wife. He called
her "Gertrude," too, and poured out compliments on her acting, describing
his despair at being unable to find her among the dancers afterwards.

Harry was boiling, Kate exultant. "I knew I was right," she thought.

Bluebell was summoned to the piano. Sir Robert followed. It was a
semi-grand, and he leant on the other end, opposite to her.

"Where is the music? Oh! you play without. So much the better. One sees
the eyes flashing."

It was not the only pair, for Dutton's were fixed upon Sir Robert with a
ferocious expression, apparent even to his obtuseness, and somewhat
surprised, he returned it with a slight stare and elevation of the
eyebrows. That night, in the smoking-room, the antagonism between the two
was more pronounced than ever. Sir Robert explained it by a conjecture
that "Dutton was sweet on the little governess, and d--d jealous." He was
not particularly popular among the other men: but all agreed that Dutton
"had been very rough on Lowther, and was not half such a cheery, pleasant
fellow as he used to be."

What would not Kate have given for an incident that befell Lady Geraldine
one day! She had been much puzzled by Harry's manner since his return:
for, though his appreciation of her was more heartily manifested than
before, she was conscious of a difference,--or rather, perhaps, analyzed
it more truly now. Her adorers had not been so numerous as to disturb the
impression of the first man who had ever appeared to care about her; but
she could