“You say you met her to-night?” he said. “Yes; I went out for a stroll and a smoke after dinner, and came upon her suddenly in the grounds. She appeared to be greatly distressed, and I, never suspecting the cause, pressed her to tell me. She turned upon me like an outraged queen, and denounced me in a manner that fairly took my breath away. She believed me to be simply Archibald Sherbrooke, an artist, until last night, when she saw me driven to your door and received as Lord Carrol; and, having heard exaggerated reports of my attentions to Miss Richards while at Long Branch, it is not strange that she should resent the seeming deception, for appearances are certainly against me. But a few words will set everything right, if you will explain something of this to her and secure an interview for me.” “Then it is our Star whom you want to marry, my lord,” Mr. Richards said, reflectively, and as if he could hardly comprehend it even yet, while he wondered if they could ever live through the tempest which his wife would surely raise when she should discover that Star had won the lover whom she was bending all her energies to secure for Josephine. “Yes, hoping for your sanction, of course,” Lord Carrol answered, with a rising flush, for he could read something of what was passing in his host’s mind. “But, pardon me,” he added, fixing a look of grave questioning upon his face, “now that I find she is the ward of your wife, I cannot understand why I have not met her with the other members of your family.” “Ahem! Well,” began Mr. Richards, with evident embarrassment, “she has been very deeply engaged with her studies ever since she came to us—is ambitious, you know, and also spends a great deal of her time practicing music, and my wife thought it would be best for her not to—to mingle in company much until she had—um!—completed her education;” and Mrs. Richards, sitting just outside that open window, where she had heard every word of the above conversation, thanked the fates that for once her husband had smoothed awkward things over for her quite comfortably. Lord Carrol simply bowed in reply to this statement. It would not become him to question the truthfulness of what he had heard, but since his interview with Star, his opinion of the family had changed very materially. “Well, I _am_ nonplussed, and I reckon that this state of affairs will create quite a commotion when it becomes known,” Mr. Richards resumed, after a few minutes of thought, during which his surprise seemed to increase. “I never dreamed that our Star would ever step into such a chair of state, although she is of good blood, I believe.”