Her future secured! ah, that he should not live to see! It could not, must not be by a marriage with Lionel. His mother had never broached that subject openly to him, and therefore he had hitherto felt a delicacy in alluding to it in conversation with her; but he would before--well, he would in time. Not that he had much fear of Annie's succumbing to his brother's fascinations; he rated her too highly for that. It was not--and he took up a photographic album which lay on his table, as the idea passed through his mind--it was not that careless reckless expression, that easy insolent pose, which would have any effect on Annie Maurice's mental constitution. Those who imagine that women are enslaved through their eyes--true women--women worth winning at least--are horribly mistaken, he thought, and--And then at that instant he turned the page and came upon a photograph of himself, in which the artist had done his best so far as arrangement went, but which was so fatally truthful in its display of his deformity, that Lord Caterham closed the book with a shudder, and sunk back on his couch. His painful reverie was broken by the entrance of Stephens, who announced that Mr. and Mrs. Ludlow were waiting to see his master. Caterham, who was unprepared for a visit from Mrs. Ludlow, gave orders that they should be at once admitted. Mrs. Ludlow came in leaning on her husband's arm, and looking so pale and interesting, that Caterham at once recollected the event he had seen announced in the _Times_, and began to apologise. "My dear Mrs. Ludlow, what a horrible wretch I am to have asked your husband to come and see me, when of course he was fully occupied at home attending to you and the baby!" Then they both laughed; and Geoff said: "This is her first day out, Lord Caterham; but I had promised to take her for a drive; and as you wanted to see me, I thought that--" "That the air of St. Barnabas Square, the fresh breezes from the Thames, and the cheerful noise of the embankment-people, would be about the best thing for an invalid, eh?" "Well--scarcely! but that as it was only stated that my wife should go for a quiet drive, I, who have neither the time nor the opportunity for such things, might utilise the occasion by complying with the request of a gentleman who has proved himself deserving of my respect." "A hit! a very palpable hit, Mr. Ludlow!" said Caterham. "I bow, and--as the common phrase goes--am sorry I spoke. But we must not talk business when you have brought Mrs. Ludlow out for amusement." "O, pray don't think of me, Lord Caterham," said Margaret; "I can always amuse myself."