"I shall miss your accompaniment dreadfully when I leave," she said, when the duet was accomplished. "I feel so sure when you play, and you help me. I hope you will come and see me. Lady Mary, my aunt, would be very pleased; don't you think she would?" to Errington, appealingly. "Certainly. I hope, Miss Liddell, you will not desert Alice. If you will permit it, Lady Mary Vincent will have the pleasure of calling on you." "That will be very kind," returned Katherine, softly. If this man were safely married and settled, she thought, she would like to be friends with his wife, and serve him in any way she could. If his eyes did not always confuse and distress her, how much she could like him! As she rose from the piano, De Burgh, who had been speaking aside with Colonel Ormonde, left him to join her. "I have settled it all with Ormonde," he said. "I am to have the pony-carriage and the dun ponies (not those Mrs. Ormonde generally drives) to-morrow; so, if it does not rain, I'll give you your first lesson; that is, _if_ you will allow me." "You are very prompt," returned Katherine, "and very good to take so much trouble. If it is fine, then, to-morrow. Pray arm yourself with patience. Are not the dun ponies rather frisky?" "Spirited, but free from vice. Ormonde had them from _my_ stables. It's no use learning to drive with dull, inanimate brutes. You'll consider yourself engaged?" "I do, if Mrs. Ormonde does not want me to go anywhere with her." "She will not," said De Burgh, confidently. "Good-night," returned Katherine. "Tell Mrs. Ormonde I have stolen away, for I have a slight headache." "What? going already?" cried De Burgh. "No more songs? The evening, then, is over." The following day was soft and bright. March had evidently made up his martial mind to go out in a lamb-like fashion, and De Burgh was unusually amiable and communicative. "When shall you be ready to start?" he asked, following Katherine from the breakfast-table. "To start where?" she asked. "What! have you forgotten our plans of last night?" was his counter-question. "I am to give you your first lesson in driving this morning. I only wait your orders before going to see the ponies put in. We had better take advantage of the fine morning." "Ay, that's right, De Burgh; make hay while the sun shines," said Ormonde, with his usual tact and jocularity. "But it would be better to have tried a quieter pair than Dick and Dandie." "I think you may trust Miss Liddell to me," returned De Burgh, impatiently. "Well, when shall I bring round the trap?" "Whenever you like. I am afraid you have set yourself a tiresome task." De Burgh laughed. "If you prove careless or disobedient, why, I'll not repeat the dose. In half an hour, then, I'll have the carriage at the door."