"My dear Nell, don't let that idea worry you. There is nothing in it; it is quite a mistaken one. Luce is a charming woman, the most finished product of this fin de siecle life----" "She is very beautiful," Nell said, just even to her rival. "I'll grant it, though compared to a certain violet-eyed girl I know----" Nell put her hand over his lips; and he kissed it, and went on gravely. "No, it is not given to Luce to love any one but herself. She and her kind worship the Golden Image which we set up at every street corner. Rank, wealth, the notoriety that is paragraphed in the society papers, those are what Luce worships, and marries for. By the accident of birth I represent most of these things, and so----" He shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "And now chance has helped me again, for her father has inherited the Marquisate of Buckleigh, and he will be rich. It is likely enough that she would have jilted me again." "But you were not engaged to her?" said Nell, drawing her hand from his head, where it had rested lightly. "No," he said. "But I should have been, and she knows it. The whole truth, dearest! No, I am free, thank God! Free to win back my old love." Nell drew a sigh of relief, and her hand stole back to him. "She will let me go calmly and easily enough. There are at least two marriageable dukes in the market, and Luce----" "Ah, Drake, I do not like to hear you speak so harshly--even of her." "Forgive me, Nell. You are right," he said penitently. "But I can't forget that by her play acting on the terrace that night she nearly robbed me of you forever, and caused both of us months of misery. I can't forget that." "But you must!" said Nell gently. "After all, it may not have been acting." He laughed again, and drew her down to him. "Ah, Nell, not even after the experience you had at Wolfe House, do you understand the fashionable woman, the professional beauty. It was all 'theater' on Luce's part, believe me! She would have made a magnificent actress. But do not let us talk about her any more. Tell me again how you used to live in Beaumont Buildings. Nell, we'll go there after we are married--we'll go and see the rooms in which you lived. I want to feel that I know every bit of your life since we parted." At the "after we are married," spoken with all the confidence of the man, Nell's face grew crimson. "And now, dearest, you will come up to the Hall?" he said, after a pause, and as if he were stating an indisputable proposition. "By George! how delighted the countess will be to hear of our reconciliation and engagement! She knows nothing of our love and our parting. I told no one; my heart was too sore; but I think I shall tell her now, and she will be simply delighted. You'll like her, Nell; she's such a dear, tender-hearted little woman. I don't wonder at my uncle falling in love with her. Poor old fellow! She has been wonderfully good to me. You'll come up to the Hall, and be treated like a princess."