She spoke with the proud grace of a young princess. For the moment he actually forgot she was but the daughter of a tiller of the soil. "I thank you," he said, gravely; and they turned aside from the high-road to the fields that led to Thorpe Woods. The day was so lovely that it might have reminded him that life had brighter aims than the wrecking of a woman's soul and the winning of a woman's love; but it did not. The birds sang in the trees, the fair sun shone, the hawthorn covered the hedges, the woodbine scented the air, and they walked on, never even hearing the myriad voices that called them to look from earth to heaven. "I was so anxious to see you again," said Lord Vivianne. "I tried to forget you, but I could not." "Why should you wish to forget me?" Doris asked, coquettishly. "Some men would flatter you," he replied, "and tell you that you are so fair they dreaded to remember you. I tell you the honest truth. I heard something which made me wish that I had never seen you, or that, having seen you, I might forget you." "What did you hear?" she asked. "You can guess. I heard that--young, lovely as you are--some one has been wise enough and quick enough to win you." She smiled a slow, cruel, peculiar smile, and when Lord Vivianne saw that expression on her face, he felt that his victory was won. "They tell me," he continued, "that this fair beauty, which ought to have the world to do it homage, is to be shut up in the obscurity of a country home; that the fair girl, who might win the hearts of all men, has promised herself to a farmer. Is it true?" Her eyes were raised to his, and in them there was a cold glitter, as of steel. "Supposing that it is true, what then?" she asked. "Then I regret, with my whole heart, having seen you, for I have met you too late." And after that they walked in silence for some minutes. He gave the words full time to do their work; he saw that they were full of meaning to her, for her face flushed, and her eyes drooped. He continued in a lighter tone: "Pray do not think me very impertinent if I inquire whether that was your shepherd lover with whom I saw you yesterday?" She raised her beautiful head proudly. Because he was her lover, no one should ridicule Earle. She might desert him, betray him, break his heart, but no one should utter one word against him--not one. "That was my lover with whom you saw me," she said, in a cold, clear voice. "You have spoken of him as a farmer, he is not that. I should not have fallen in love with a farmer. He is a poet and a gentleman." "He looks like it," said my lord, seeing that he was altogether on the wrong track, "therefore I say how deeply I regret that I have met you too late. You cannot surely, Miss Brace, be angry with me for saying that?" "I am not angry at all," said Doris, and the beautiful eyes were raised frankly to his. "How can I be angry," she continued, "when you pay me the greatest compliments in your power." CHAPTER XXIV.