ave it for good, so much the better. And, perhaps,
the sooner Lilian returns to L---- the lighter your own heart will be."

"And for these reasons you have published the secret of--"

"Your engagement? Yes. Prepare to be congratulated wherever you go. And
now if you hear either from mother or daughter that Ashleigh Sumner has
proposed, and been, let us say, refused, I do not doubt that, in the
pride of your heart, you will come and tell me."

"Rely upon it, I will; but before I take leave, allow me to ask why you
described to a young man like Mr. Margrave--, whose wild and strange
humours you have witnessed and not approved--any of those traits of
character in Miss Ashleigh which distinguish her from other girls of her
age?"

"I? You mistake. I said nothing to him of her character. I mentioned her
name, and said she was beautiful, that was all."

"Nay, you said that she was fond of musing, of solitude; that in her
fancies she believed in the reality of visions which might flit before
her eyes as they flit before the eyes of all imaginative dreamers."

"Not a word did I say to Mr. Margrave of such peculiarities in Lilian;
not a word more than what I have told you, on my honour!"

Still incredulous, but disguising my incredulity with that convenient
smile by which we accomplish so much of the polite dissimulation
indispensable to the decencies of civilized life, I took my departure,
returned home, and wrote to Lilian.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The conversation with Mrs. Poyntz left my mind restless and disquieted.
I had no doubt, indeed, of Lilian's truth; but could I be sure that
the attentions of a young man, with advantages of fortune so brilliant,
would not force on her thoughts the contrast of the humbler lot and the
duller walk of life in which she had accepted as companion a man removed
from her romantic youth less by disparity of years than by gravity
of pursuits? And would my suit now be as welcomed as it had been by a
mother even so unworldly as Mrs. Ashleigh? Why, too, should both mother
and daughter have left me so unprepared to hear that I had a rival; why
not have implied some consoling assurance that such rivalry need not
cause me alarm? Lilian's letters, it is true, touched but little on any
of the persons round her; they were filled with the outpourings of
an ingenuous heart, coloured by the glow of a golden fancy. They were
written as if in the wide world we two stood apart alone, consecrated
fro