"But though one may abuse one's home oneself, one can't stand any other person's doing so--above all a perfect stranger, isn't that it?" said Captain Chancellor, good-humouredly. "Not quite. A perfect stranger's opinion can't matter much, for it can only be founded on hearsay," replied the young lady, with a smile. Her powers of repartee promised to be greater than he had expected, and Beauchamp Chancellor was not fond of repartee when exerted at his own expense. But he covered his slight annoyance by an increasingly paternal tone to his young companion. "Believe nothing you hear, and only half you see. You are rather too young to have adopted that motto yet, Miss Laurence; are you not? But after all, I don't feel myself very guilty, for you own to not liking Wareborough yourself. You don't really belong to it, do you? I can't get it into my head that you do." The delicately implied flattery had the intended effect. The very slight disturbance of the young girl's equanimity disappeared, and with an almost imperceptible elevation of the well-shaped little head, not lost on her companion, she replied: "I don't quite know what you mean by belonging to Wareborough? Of course, in one sense, we do not; that is to say, our grandfathers and great-grandfathers didn't live here, but we, Sydney and I, were born here, and it has always been our home." "And yet you don't like it? I suppose you have been a good deal away from home--abroad perhaps?" questioned Captain Chancellor. "No, I have very seldom been away, and we have never been abroad," said the girl, somewhat bluntly, but blushing a good deal as she spoke. "It is not from personal experience I can compare Wareborough with other places," she went on; "it is from what I have read principally." "Ah, then, you indulge pretty freely in novels, like most young ladies," observed Captain Chancellor. Something in the tone or words jarred slightly on his hearer, but she had no time to define the sensation, for just then Mrs Dalrymple approached them. "Well, Eugenia, my dear, you are enjoying yourself, I hope? And you, too, Captain Chancellor? I have been admiring your dancing. Henry introduced you, I suppose? Quite right. This dance is just about over. I want to introduce you to the Miss Harveys--charming girls. You must engage one of them for the next dance." "A little later in the evening, I shall be delighted to be introduced to any friend of yours, my dear Mrs Dalrymple," replied Captain Chancellor. "For the next dance, you must excuse me. I am already engaged." "Ah, well, never mind. Come to me when it is over," said the good-natured hostess. "You are not going to dance with Roma, I suppose? What has come over her to-night--can you tell me?"