Drake shrugged his shoulders with a kind of smiling despair. "I can't tell you," he replied. "I think she is going to behave sensibly. At any rate, there is no need for anxiety. I have told Nell everything. She will trust me." "Yes; but I wish she had gone," said the countess, in a low voice. Drake smiled grimly. "So do I. But she hasn't." "She is too serene and contented," murmured the countess. Drake shrugged his shoulders again. "I know," he said significantly. "But what does it matter? She can do no harm. Nell knows everything." "I like the way you say that," said the countess. "But don't leave her." He nodded as if he understood, and gradually made his way toward the group among which Luce and Nell were sitting. As he approached, Lady Luce looked up with a smile. "I have been telling Miss Lorton that if there is one thing I adore upon earth, it is a romantic engagement, and that I quite envy her, and you, too, Lord Angleford! A glamour of romance will surround you for the rest of your lives. As I have often said to Archie, life without sentiment would not be worth having. By the way, Miss Lorton, you know Sir Archie Walbrooke?" Nell had scarcely been listening, for she had been wondering whether she could now rise and leave Lady Luce; but at the name of Sir Archie Walbrooke, she turned with a sudden start, and the color rose to her face. Lady Luce looked at her sweetly; then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, exclaimed, in a low voice: "Oh, I beg your pardon! I quite forgot. How stupid of me!" Then she laughed softly and looked from Nell to Drake. "But of course you've told Lord Angleford? It is always the best way." The color slowly left Nell's face; a look of pain, of doubt, even of dread, came into her eyes. Drake glanced from one woman to the other. "What is it Nell must have told me, Lady Luce?" he asked easily. Lady Luce hesitated, seemed as if in doubt for a moment, and smiled in an embarrassed fashion. "Have you told him?" she asked Nell, in a low, but perfectly audible voice. Nell rose, then sank down again. She saw in an instant the trap which Lady Luce had set for her; and it seemed to her a trap from which she could not escape. It was evident that Lady Luce had become informed of the scene that had taken place between Sir Archie, Lord Wolfer, and Nell in the library at Wolfer House, and that Lady Luce intended to denounce her in the drawing-room before Drake and the large party gathered together in her honor. For one single instant there rose in her heart a keen regret that she had not told Drake; but it was only for an instant; for Nell's nature was a noble one, and she knew that at no time and under no circumstances whatever could she have sacrificed her friend, even to save her life's happiness--and Drake's.