Lord Linleigh could never forget the thanks that were lavished on him--the gratitude, the warmth of emotion. "And now," said the earl, "there is one thing more that I wish you to do for me. It relates to my daughter's engagement with Earle Moray." Mark looked at him with anxious eyes. "We have been speaking of that, my lord--my wife and I. It may not perhaps seem much of a match for her, now that she is my lady; but if you were to search the wide world over, you would never find any one who loved her so dearly as Earle--no one so honest, so good and true. It will be but a poor chance for her, my lord, if she finds a fortune and loses Earle." "So I believe," said the earl. "It is about that I wish to speak to you. You will see Earle on your return; tell him from me that the change in my daughter's position need make none in her engagement to him; tell him, from me, that as far as my consent can ratify and approve it, I most freely give that consent. Tell him also that I will do my best to push his fortune." Mrs. Brace looked at him with grateful approval. "My lord," she said, in her simple fashion, "they speak truthfully when they call you a noble man." Lady Doris, proud of her name, her fortune, her position, did not feel quite so pleased when she heard this. It had been all very well when she was Doris Brace--it had been all very well in Florence, when Earle had become tiresome, she had been compelled to repeat her promise of marriage, and pledge herself to him over and over again; but there had been a faint hope in her mind that when she was once with her father, under the shelter of his roof, he would never allow her to fulfill the engagement. She never dreamed that he would chivalrously exact its fulfillment. Still, she was wise enough to be silent, and not say what was in her mind. She had learned that great lesson women so often fail in--when to be silent and when to speak. When they were once more alone, Mrs. Brace expressed her great sense of the earl's kindness and real goodness. She thought it so noble of him that he should wish the engagement to continue. "It would break Earle's heart to lose you," she said. "When you went away--abroad, I mean--I thought he would have died." Lady Doris raised her head with the lofty air natural to her. "You do not understand," she said. "The earl could not break his word, or persuade another person to break a promise. _Noblesse oblige!_" "Ah, my dear," said the kindly woman, "you are far ahead of me--I never did quite understand you--you are clever and learned; you have speech of your own that I cannot follow: but however great or grand you may be, you will never find any one to love you so truly as Earle does."