A fire burned in Lady Thetford's room, and among piles of silken pillows my lady, languid and pale, lay, looking into the leaping flame. It was a hot July morning, the sun blazed like a wheel of fire in a sky without a cloud, but Lady Thetford was always chilly of late. She drew the crimson shawl she wore closer around her, and glanced impatiently now and then at the pretty toy clock on the decorated chimney-piece. The house was very still; its one disturbing element, Miss Everard, was absent with Sir Rupert for a morning canter over the sunny Devon hills. "How long they stay, and these solitary rides are so dangerous! Oh! what will become of me if it is too late, after all! What shall I do if he says no?" There was a quick man's step without--a moment and the door opened, and Sir Rupert, "booted and spurred" from his ride, was bending over his mother. "Louise says you sent for me after I left. What is it, mother--you are not worse?" He knelt beside her. Lady Thetford put back the fair brown hair with tender touch, and gazed in the handsome face so like her own, with eyes full of unspeakable love. "My boy! my boy!" she murmured, "my darling Rupert! Oh! it _is_ hard, it _is_ bitter to have to leave you!" "Mother!" with a quick look of alarm, "what is it? Are you worse?" "No worse, Rupert; but no better. My boy, I shall never be better again in this world." "Mother----" "Hush, my Rupert--wait; you know it is true; and but for leaving you I should be glad to go. My life has not been so happy since your father died, that I should greatly cling to it." "But, mother, this won't do; these morbid fancies are worst of all. Keeping up one's spirits is half the battle." "I am not morbid; I merely state a fact--a fact which must preface what is to come. Rupert, I know I am dying, and before we part I want to see my successor at Thetford Towers." "My dear mother!" amazedly. "Rupert, I want to see Aileen Jocyln your wife. No, no; don't interrupt me, but believe me, I dislike match-making quite as cordially as you do; but my days on earth are numbered, and I must speak before it is too late. When we were abroad I thought there never would be occasion; when we returned home I thought so, too. Rupert, I have ceased to think so since May Everhard's return." The young man's face flushed suddenly and hotly, but he made no reply. "How any man in his senses could possibly prefer May to Aileen, is a mystery I cannot solve; but then these things puzzle the wisest of us at times. Mind, my boy, I don't really say you _do_ prefer May--I should be very unhappy if I thought so. I know--I am certain you love Aileen best; and I am equally certain she is a thousand times better suited to you. Then, as a man of honor, you owe it to her. You have paid Miss Jocyln such attentions as no honorable gentleman should pay any lady, save the one he means to make his wife." Lady Thetford's son rose abruptly, and stood leaning against the mantle, looking into the fire.