a conservatory of music. You know she is acting as a kind of companion to Lady Camden." He essayed to speak, but realizing the commonplaceness of his words ere they were framed, he repressed them and merely shifted his position to assure his cousin that he was not asleep, that he was listening. "I'd imagine, though, that the position would be a trifle embarrassing to her, for Sir Philip is always having people - by the way, in behalf of Lady Camden, Alice importunes us not to make any engagements for the week after next, as they are to give a ball at Maplehurst, followed by a house-party. The invitations were all to be sent to-day, I believe. I want you to see Maplehurst," added the young girl. "It is built on a kind of bluff overlooking the Merrimac, and is one of the finest estates we have, being built after the old English castellated style, and furnished something after the custom of your continent." "Then you will accept the invitations to Lady Camden's ball?" observed Thayer, as he feigned a yawn of indifference, and again shifted his posi tion. "Yes, oh, yes, I hope so! I should die of sheer disappointment if I had to miss such a social treat as this will be," cried Valois, with eager enthusiasm. "You know," she went on, "I have only been 'out' a short time, Alice and I having made our debut together at Mrs. Carruthers' ball last August. The event was in honor of her son, Lieutenant Gershon Carruthers, who had just returned with his ship from India after an absence of nearly three years. Oh, cousin Thayer!" she added in an estatic undertone as she leaned forward until her face was on a level with his own, "he will be there!" Thayer took her face between his hands and gazed into it as well as the darkness would permit. "He will be there, eh? and, oh, Valois, you will be glad?" he asked, tenderly. She fain would have shrunk away from him back into her corner with her secret but half confessed, but he held her closely and whispered imperatively: “Tell me all about it. Tell me all about this naval officer whose brass buttons and epaulets have had such power to fascinate you, little coz ?" She felt her face burning hot and thought him aggressive beyond forgiveness. "Thayer, I will not-" she commenced, rebelliously. "Oh, yes, you shall, you must!" he interrupted with exasperating authority. "Well he he is just the very nicest man met-there!" "What else?" I ever "There is nothing else. Release me, tyrant! if you do not release me I shall never speak to you again." "Very well; I shall not release you, however, until you have made a full confession of your love affa-Good heavens! here we are, home!" Thayer broke off, as the carriage stopped abruptly. He sprang out and assisted Valois to the white ground and they ran together through the almost impenetrable darkness and thickly whirling flakes up the steps to the vestibule. Here in the rays of the lantern their eyes met. Valois' shone out above her sables with shy mirth, yet she feigned. a dignity ludicrously at variance with this as, for the second time she branded him a tyrant.". "If you divulge my secret," said she, "or in any manner allude to it in the future, I shall abhor you, positively," but her laughter floated down to him as she reached the top of the stairs and sped along the hall toward her room; and this told him, despite her words, that she trusted him with her secret implicitly. Half an hour later they met at dinner. During the meal the forthcoming ball and house-party were discussed, and it was decided that a note of acceptance should be sent to Maplehurst on the following day. Later in the evening Valois said to her cousin : "Why, Thayer, what has come over you to make you look so happy to-night? You have not looked so affable since we came to town. Are you glad we are to go to Maplehurst ?" She looked him steadily in the eyes as she spoke, and he read in her glance a look of intelligence that made him start; he collected himself, however, at once and answered briefly. "Yes; I am glad." There ensued an eloquent division of survey, after which they felt they understood and could henceforth sympathize with one another profoundly. CHAPTER XI THE BUST OF GLAUCUS. An image uncertain And vague, dimly shaped itself forth on the curtain THE "LUCILE."-Owen Meredith. HE night's darkness was so intense that the fast-driven snow fell undiscernable, and the course of the luckless country wayfarer was only defined by the fitful light shed abroad by carriage lamp, or hand-swung lantern. Sir Philip Camden's horses made but sluggish progress on their way over the storm-swept highway toward Maplehurst; even though the driver made unremitting and merciless cuts at them with the lash, and urged and jerked their bits until the blood oozed from, and congealed upon. their nostrils. Sir Philip, alternately dozing and imprecating the fates who thus deterred him from the comforts of his fireside, at length flung open the carriage door and called out vehemently to the driver: "Wake up those devilish horses, will you?" "I can't make 'em go no faster, yer honor. The snow be right in their faces." |