“Will you make me happy in return, Lady Bell, by conferring on me an additional favour?” said Harry Fane with an impulsive stammer that was directly opposed to his usual calmness, and yet was by no means unbecoming in the grave young man. “Will you do me the honour to accept this cup from me, and keep it as a trophy of Wedgwood and a memento of what you have been so good as to call a happy morning?” and the fellow who was known for his restiveness and captiousness, spoke the words humbly, as if he were addressing them to a queen. “With the greatest pleasure, sir,” answered Lady Bell, without a shade of reluctance, and with a sigh of pure satisfaction and exultation in the promised possession. “I have been longing to make a purchase of a small sample of the wonders before me, to take it home and preserve it as one of my cherished treasures. But I feared that my shallow purse, already well emptied with town requisitions and extravagances, could not compass what I desired. I am trespassing on your friendliness; but besides being yourself a lover of art, you are a kinsman of my kind hostess, and I declare, through Sir Peter, you are related to my Mrs. Sundon.” Lady Bell slightly impaired the winning ingenuousness of her acceptance by thus arguing it out, in order to justify it in her own eyes. But she atoned for the falling off by the evident gratification with which she hailed a thread of connection between Captain Fane and Mrs. Sundon. So agreeably was Lady Bell persuaded of the slender link, that she helped the open-handed sailor, Miss Sundon and Miss Lyddy, to choose a piece of Wedgwood ware for Mrs. Sundon, in addition to the pieces for Lady Sundon and the girls, and readily undertook to take care of the former piece, convey and present it to Mrs. Sundon, along with the almanack for her friend, and the set of flappers for Caro, which Lady Bell had in store. Lady Bell made no comment, though she could hardly have overlooked a circumstance which she might attribute, as the Sundons attributed it, to her higher rank. There was the same characteristic difference between Lady Bell’s cup and the plates and saucers of the others that there had been between Benjamin’s mess and the messes of his brethren, as sent them from the hands of Joseph, when Jacob’s sons went in and ate with the ruler of Egypt. Lady Bell’s piece of Wedgwood ware was five times more valuable than the other pieces. CHAPTER X. A PARTY ON THE WATER. Captain Fane, young wiseacre as he was, reckoned foolishly with little knowledge of the world, and less knowledge of woman’s nature, that the next time he met Lady Bell he should take up the acquaintance at the very point at which he had left it off, on the lucky hit of his introducing the ladies to the galleries of science and art.