r was wooer of wealthy bride so
thoroughly absolved from the subaltern part, so inevitably compelled to
assume a paramount character.

In all this Miss Keeldar partly yielded to her disposition; but a remark
she made a year afterwards proved that she partly also acted on system.
"Louis," she said, "would never have learned to rule if she had not
ceased to govern. The incapacity of the sovereign had developed the
powers of the premier."

It had been intended that Miss Helstone should act as bridesmaid at the
approaching nuptials, but Fortune had destined her another part.

She came home in time to water her plants. She had performed this little
task. The last flower attended to was a rose-tree, which bloomed in a
quiet green nook at the back of the house. This plant had received the
refreshing shower; she was now resting a minute. Near the wall stood a
fragment of sculptured stone--a monkish relic--once, perhaps, the base
of a cross. She mounted it, that she might better command the view. She
had still the watering pot in one hand; with the other her pretty dress
was held lightly aside, to avoid trickling drops. She gazed over the
wall, along some lonely fields; beyond three dusk trees, rising side by
side against the sky; beyond a solitary thorn at the head of a solitary
lane far off. She surveyed the dusk moors, where bonfires were kindling.
The summer evening was warm; the bell-music was joyous; the blue smoke
of the fires looked soft, their red flame bright. Above them, in the sky
whence the sun had vanished, twinkled a silver point--the star of love.

Caroline was not unhappy that evening--far otherwise; but as she gazed
she sighed, and as she sighed a hand circled her, and rested quietly on
her waist. Caroline thought she knew who had drawn near; she received
the touch unstartled.

"I am looking at Venus, mamma. See, she is beautiful. How white her
lustre is, compared with the deep red of the bonfires!"

The answer was a closer caress; and Caroline turned, and looked, not
into Mrs. Pryor's matron face, but up at a dark manly visage. She
dropped her watering-pot and stepped down from the pedestal.

"I have been sitting with 'mamma' an hour," said the intruder. "I have
had a long conversation with her. Where, meantime, have you been?"

"To Fieldhead. Shirley is as naughty as ever, Robert. She will neither
say Yes nor No to any question put. She sits alone. I cannot tell
whether she is melancholy or nonchalant