the same love he had borne for Decima--a love, such as that, never comes twice in a lifetime--but with a love sufficiently warm, notwithstanding. And he asked her to become his wife. _There_ was triumph for Lady Verner! Next to Decima--and all hope of that was dead for ever--she would like Lord Garle to marry Lucy. A real triumph, the presenting her to Colonel Tempest on his return, my Lady Viscountess Garle! In the delight of her heart she betrayed something of this to Lucy. "But I am not going to marry him, Lady Verner," objected Lucy. "You are not going to marry him, Lucy? He confided to me the fact of his intention this morning before he spoke to you. He _has_ spoken to you, has he not?" "Yes," replied Lucy; "but I cannot accept him." "You--cannot! What are you talking of?" cried Lady Verner. "Please not to be angry, Lady Verner! I could not marry Lord Garle." Lady Verner's lips grew pale. "And pray why can you not?" she demanded. "I--don't like him," stammered Lucy. "Not like him!" repeated Lady Verner. "Why, what can there be about Lord Garle that you young ladies do not like?" she wondered; her thoughts cast back to the former rejection by Decima. "He is good-looking, he is sensible; there's not so attractive a man in all the county, Lionel Verner excepted." Lucy's face turned to a fiery glow. "Had I known he was going to ask me, I would have requested him not to do so beforehand, as my refusal has displeased you," she simply said. "I am sorry you should be vexed with me, Lady Verner." "It appears to me that nothing but vexation is to be the portion of my life!" uttered Lady Verner. "Thwarted--thwarted always!--on all sides. First the one, then the other--nothing but crosses and vexations! What did you say to Lord Garle?" "I told Lord Garle that I could not marry him; that I should never like him well enough--for he said, if I did not care for him now, I might later. But I told him no; it was impossible. I like him very well as a friend, but that is all." "_Why_ don't you like him?" repeated Lady Verner. "I don't know," whispered Lucy, standing before Lady Verner like a culprit, her eyes cast down, and her eyelashes resting on her hot crimsoned face. "Do you _both_ mean to make yourselves into old maids, you and Decima?" reiterated the angry Lady Verner. "A pretty pair of you I shall have on my hands! I never was so annoyed in all my life." Lucy burst into tears. "I wish I could go to papa in India!" she said. "Do you know what you have rejected?" asked Lady Verner. "You would have been a peeress of England. His father will not live for ever." "But I should not care to be a peeress," sobbed Lucy. "And I don't like him." "Mamma, please do not say any more," pleaded Decima. "Lucy is not to blame. If she does not like Lord Garle she could not accept him."