He had spoken of this sister to his betrothed of late; rarely, but with a quiet affection which Lucille knew to be deep. The pale face flushed with a bright happy look at this suggestion. ‘I am to go to see your sister, Lucius!’ she cried. ‘I should like that of all things.’ ‘I thought so, darling. Janet is staying in a little rustic village in my part of the country. I had a letter from her a week ago, telling me of her change of residence. She is with an old woman who was our nurse when we were little ones; so if you want to hear what an ill-conditioned refractory imp Master Lucius Davoren was in an early stage of his existence, you may receive the information from the fountain-head.’ Lucille smiled through the tears that were hardly dry yet. Everything relating to lovers is interesting—to themselves. ‘I daresay you were a very good boy, Lucius,’ she said, ‘and that your old nurse will do nothing but praise you. I shall be so pleased to see your sister, and the place where you were born—if grandpapa will only let me go.’ ‘I’ll get his permission, dearest. Be assured of that.’ ‘And do you think your sister will like me—a little? I know I shall love her.’ ‘The love will be mutual, depend upon it, darling. And now I think I’d better go up-stairs to Mr. Sivewright and talk to him about your holiday.’ ‘My holiday!’ cried Lucille. ‘How strange that sounds! I have not spent a day away from this house since I came home from school three years ago.’ ‘No wonder such imprisonment has paled my fair young blossom,’ said her lover tenderly. ‘Hampshire breezes will bring back the roses to my darling’s cheeks.’ He left her to propose this somewhat daring scheme to Mr. Sivewright, over whom he felt he had acquired some slight influence. In all his talk with Lucille to-night—which had taken a turn he had in no manner anticipated—he had not asked those questions he wished to ask about her life before the Bond-street period. It did not very much matter, he thought. Those questions could stand over till to-morrow. But before he started for Rouen he wanted to fortify his case with all the information Lucille’s memory could afford him. ‘And the recollections of earliest childhood are sometimes very clear,’ he said to himself, as he went up the dark staircase to his interview with Homer Sivewright.