"No, Miles," she answered laughing, her whole bright soul in his face, robed in smiles and dimples; "_you_ shall be the day-god, rising at peep of day, higher and higher until you arrive at meridian splendour, and _then_ I will be the dial to mark your course, and live in your rays." "I will accept that position, darling, for then I shall know you only live by my light. Minnie, Minnie, it would kill me to think any one even approached your heart, where I must reign alone!" "How could that ever be possible?" she said, fondling his hand in both her own, and then kissing it almost with reverence. "Now, tell me all about your drive," he inquired after a pause. Minnie had reserved this for the last; somehow her woman's unerring wit told even her unsophisticated nature, that it would pain Miles, and it grieved her so much to see a cloud on his brow. Even with this foresight, she was ill prepared for the annoyance which assailed him; he was most indignant at Lady Dora's introducing Minnie as Miss Dalzell. "In your position," he cried, "she should have been doubly guarded; better not have named you at all, and to Lord Randolph Gray, of all persons, I am sorely perplexed how to act." She tried as much as possible to soothe him, but there was a sting in his heart--a sting of anticipated trouble arising out of this. He knew Lord Randolph so well, that he felt convinced he would seek every possible means of discovering who Minnie was: she was not a creature to be passed in a crowd--her beauty was too rare and remarkable. He thought at first of seeking him, and confiding the truth to him and his honour for secresy. Well would it have been had he done so; this would have shown the affair, when well explained, in a different light to the one in which the other now viewed it. Had he known Marmaduke Burton and Dalby were guests at Uplands, he would not have hesitated; but in ignorance of much, he at last grew calmer under the erroneous idea that perhaps Lord Randolph would think no more about her; besides, how could he trace her--how hear any thing of her? And, to crown all, he knew the other was leaving England on a tour in a month; so he resolved to let matters take their natural course, and, comforted by Minnie's assurance that his Lordship had not followed them, he dropped the subject, on her promising to go out no more with Lady Dora, at present. Poor Tremenhere little imagined how much Lord Randolph really thought of Minnie; that evening he called at Lady Ripley's, and to his surprise was requested to enter a boudoir solely belonging to Lady Dora, where even he had seldom been admitted. He found her sitting alone, evidently awaiting his arrival. "Lord Randolph," she said with more cordiality than was usual on her part, "I have a favour to solicit at your hands."