"She does not know exactly what to do. She talks of taking a house in London--if you would like it." "Would mamma care to live in London?" "Not for her own sake: for yours." "But I--I do not think I like London so much," said Lesley, with a swift blush and some hesitation. Captain Duchesne looked at her searchingly. "Indeed? I understood that you had become much attached to it. I am sure Lady Alice thinks so." "I do love it--yes, but it is on account of the people who live in London," said Lesley. "Ah, you have made friends?" "There is my father, you know." "Yes." And something in his tone made Lesley change the subject hurriedly. Captain Duchesne would never have been so ill-bred as to speak disparagingly of a lady's father to her face; and yet she felt that there was something disparaging in the tone. "Have you seen the present Lord Courtleroy?" she asked. "Yes; I have met him once or twice. He is somewhat stiff and rigid in appearance, but he is very courteous--more than courteous, Lady Alice tells me, for he is kind. He wishes to disturb her as little as possible--entreats her to stay at Courtleroy, and so on; but naturally she wishes to have a house of her own." "Of course. But I thought that she would prefer the South of France." "If I may say so without offence," said Captain Duchesne, smiling, "Lady Alice's tastes seem to be changing. She used to love the country and inveigh against the ugliness of town; but now she spends her time in visiting hospitals and exploring Whitechapel----" Lesley almost sprang to her feet. "Oh, Captain Duchesne, are you in earnest?" "Quite in earnest." "Oh, I _am_ so glad!" "Why, may I ask?" said Duchesne, with real curiosity. But Lesley clasped her hands tightly together and hung her head, feeling that she could not explain to a comparative stranger how she felt that community of interests might tend to a reconciliation between the long separated father and mother. And in the rather awkward pause that followed, Miss Ethel Kenyon was announced. Lesley was very glad to see her, and glad to see that she looked approvingly at Captain Duchesne, and launched at once into an animated conversation with him. Lesley relapsed almost into silence for a time, but a satisfied smile played upon her lips. It seemed to her that Captain Duchesne's dark eyes lighted up when he talked to Ethel as they had not done when he talked to _her_; that Ethel's cheeks dimpled with her most irresistible smile, and that her voice was full of pretty cadences, delighted laughter, mirth and sweetness. Lesley's nature was so thoroughly unselfish, that she could bear to be set aside for a friend's sake; and she was so ingenuous and single-minded that she put no strained interpretation on the honest admiration which she read in Harry Duchesne's eyes. It may have been partly in hopes of drawing her once more into the conversation that he turned to her presently with a laughing remark anent her love of smoky London.