"O, pray, pray do not think me mean or contemptible, Mr. Granger," she said; "it is not that I envy you your house, only it was my home so long, and I always felt its neglect so keenly; and to see it now so beautiful, as I could have only pictured it in my dreams--and even in them I could not fancy it so perfect." "It may be your home again, Clarissa, if you care to make it so," said Mr. Granger, coming very close to her, and with a sudden passion in his voice. "I little thought when I planned this place that it would one day seem worthless to me without one lovely mistress. It is all yours, Clarissa, if you will have it--and the heart of its master, who never thought that it was in his nature to feel what he feels for you." He tried to take her hand; but she shrank away from him, trembling a little, and with a frightened look in her face. "Mr. Granger, O, pray, pray don't----" "For God's sake don't tell me that this seems preposterous or hateful to you--that you cannot value the love of a man old enough to be your father. You do not know what it is for a man of my age and my character to love for the first time. I had gone through life heart-whole, Clarissa, till I saw you. Between my wife and me there was never more than liking. She was a good woman, and I respected her, and we got on very well together. That was all. Clarissa, tell me that there is some hope. I ought not to have spoken so soon; I never meant to be such a fool--but the words came in spite of me. O, my dearest, don't crush me with a point-blank refusal. I know that all this must seem strange to you. Let it pass. Think no more of anything I have said till you know me better--till you find my love is worth having. I believe I fell in love with you that first afternoon in the library at Hale. From that time forth your face haunted me--like some beautiful picture--the loveliest thing I had ever seen, Clarissa." "I cannot answer you, Mr. Granger," she said in a broken voice; "you have shocked and surprised me so much, I----" "Shocked and surprised you! That seems hard." In that very moment it flashed upon her that this was what her father and Lady Laura Armstrong had wished to bring about. She was to win back the lost heritage of Arden Court--win it by the sacrifice of every natural feeling of her heart, by the barter of her very self. How much more Mr. Granger might have said there is no knowing--for, once having spoken, a man is loth to leave such a subject as this unexhausted--but there came to Clarissa's relief the rustling sound of a stiff silk dress, announcing the advent of Miss Granger, who sailed towards them through a vista of splendid rooms, with a stately uncompromising air that did not argue the warmest possible welcome for her guest. "I have been hunting for you everywhere, papa," she said in an aggrieved tone. "Where have you been hiding Miss Lovel?"