Those are facts which speak for themselves."

"Yes--but Emily is bent on attracting you. She would marry you
to-morrow, if you asked her. Don't attempt to deny it! Besides, you
kissed her hand."

"Oh, Miss de Sor!"

"Don't call me 'Miss de Sor'! Call me Francine. I want to know why you
kissed her hand."

He humored her with inexhaustible servility. "Allow me to kiss _your_
hand, Francine!--and let me explain that kissing a lady's hand is only a
form of thanking her for her kindness. You must own that Emily--"

She interrupted him for the third time. "Emily?" she repeated. "Are you
as familiar as that already? Does she call you 'Miles,' when you are
by yourselves? Is there any effort at fascination which this charming
creature has left untried? She told you no doubt what a lonely life she
leads in her poor little home?"

Even Mirabel felt that he must not permit this to pass.

"She has said nothing to me about herself," he answered. "What I know of
her, I know from Mr. Wyvil."

"Oh, indeed! You asked Mr. Wyvil about her family, of course? What did
he say?"

"He said she lost her mother when she was a child--and he told me her
father had died suddenly, a few years since, of heart complaint."

"Well, and what else?--Never mind now! Here is somebody coming."

The person was only one of the servants. Mirabel felt grateful to
the man for interrupting them. Animated by sentiments of a precisely
opposite nature, Francine spoke to him sharply.

"What do you want here?"

"A message, miss."

"From whom?"

"From Miss Brown."

"For me?"

"No, miss." He turned to Mirabel. "Miss Brown wishes to speak to you,
sir, if you are not engaged."

Francine controlled herself until the man was out of hearing.

"Upon my word, this is too shameless!" she declared indignantly. "Emily
can't leave you with me for five minutes, without wanting to see you
again. If you go to her after all that you have said to me," she cried,
threatening Mirabel with her outstretched hand, "you are the meanest of
men!"

He _was_ the meanest of men--he carried out his cowardly submission to
the last extremity.

"Only say what you wish me to do," he replied.

Even Francine expected some little resistance from a creature bearing
the outward appearance of a man. "Oh, do you really mean it?" she asked
"I want you to disappoint Emily. Will you stay here, and let me make
your excuses?"

"I will do anything to please you."

Francine gave him