“I am my own mistress,” said Lady Bell, giving a welcome specimen of the wilfulness of which she had spoken. “No one has any right to say anything to me against my choice—as if I would listen!—unless my dear Mrs. Sundon. Oh, I hope she will not think that we have been close and sly. I have writ and told her that I thought one gentleman very different from the rest whom I met in town, and that I imagined she would like him. Only I made a mistake; for I fancied at first that he would be more to her taste than mine. But, sir, I do not grant that you have any title to hear what I write in my private correspondence with my friend.” She made a faint attempt at playfulness. “Don’t you?” questioned Harry, showing that, glum as he had sometimes been in Lady Bell’s company, his was not the faint heart which could not win a fair lady. “What presumption I have been guilty of! I leaped to the conclusion that there was to be no more secrets between us, and that you would write to me myself for my consolation in our parting.” At that word of parting, Lady Bell came fluttering down from her proud little perch, and nestled to him in an instant. “Harry,” she said, “I shall meet you to-morrow if you bid me. But take care what you bid me to do, for I trust you entirely.” “God do so and more to me, if I fail you,” swore Harry Fane. “And don’t mind any foolish pother people make. I shall not mind it much. Only I hope that they will not be very rude and disagreeable on your account. Here is the coffee-house; and mind, we must behave ourselves, unless we would have our engagement talked of all over the town before it is fairly concluded.” CHAPTER XIX. THE MEETING ON THE MALL. By nine o’clock next morning a young naval officer was pacing the Mall of St. James’s under the interlaced boughs of the still leafless trees. He formed a conspicuous figure among the porters, tradesmen’s boys, shopwomen, and message girls—all who were then to be seen on the old promenade, which had still its fashionable frequenters at stated hours later in the day. But conspicuous or unconspicuous, there was no one whose observation was likely to signify to the gentleman, or to the lady who, taking an early walk, attended by her maid, might encounter him, and consent to his attendance for the rest of the way.