“Of course you are. My father is most anxious to meet you.” “That’s very nice of him. But, I say, Lady Mary----” The young man stopped suddenly, and the girl looked up at him. She read in his eyes such honest, undisguised admiration of herself, that she dropped her own and blushed still more rosily. “What is it?” she asked. “Have you forgotten something?” “No,” he said eagerly, taking the unresisting fingers of her two hands in his, as they stood there. “No, I have just remembered. I ought to have something to say to your father, don’t you know. We can’t talk about painting, and----well, Mary, we should have some topic of vital interest to us both to discuss, shouldn’t we?” The girl laughed a little, but did not reply. The three dogs stood some distance off, regarding the pair with suspicion; and a low growl from one of them indicated that the situation was unusual and must not be carried too far. “What shall I say to him, Mary?” cried the young man, with a tender thrill in his deep voice. “May I tell him I care more for his daughter than for any one else in the world? May I?” The girl made no attempt to withdraw her hands, nor did she do more than give him one swift, brief glance. “If it is true,” she murmured, “I see no reason why you should not tell him so.” “True!” cried Barney, fervently. “There’s nothing on earth so true, Mary, my darling, as that I love you! And do you--do you care in the least for a big blundering fellow like me?” “Always, always!” said Lady Mary. “Ever since I first met you. And long before the world recognized your genius, Barney, I did.” The jubilant young man, suddenly abandoning the hands that were thus promised him, clasped the girl to him and kissed her. It is a remarkable thing that a man often attains celebrity for doing something that hundreds of others do better, while the world remains ignorant of performances that are really entitled to fame. As Barney threw one arm around Lady Mary’s waist, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the big dog spring at his throat. Yet the young man kissed the girl as tenderly and as gently as if nothing particular were happening on the other side of him; and Lady Mary, closing her eyes for the moment, rested her head against his breast and breathed a deep sigh of contentment. She was awakened from her momentary dream by savage, mouthing growls, and, remembering the dogs, jumped back in alarm. With rigid muscles Barney held at arm’s length, his strong hand grasping the collar, a brute only slightly smaller than a pony, whose angry fangs were tearing at his coat-sleeve. The other two dogs looked on, snarling, but apparently waiting for their mistress to give the word of attack. The girl shrieked at the sight. “Down, Nero, down!” she cried. “How dare you, sir!”