I was putting in the new ones that people there had given me, that you were gone. As if it could have got at the back of another," cried Marjorie, indignantly, "when I had them all out ever so often! I just know it was Rupert, whoever says it wasn't."

"You just know,' "" said her sister, glad to have something to take hold of. "What an expression, child!" "He had no business to steal yours, even if he did put in his," said Marjorie, unheeding; "but I'll get it back when he comes to the wedding," resolutely. "It is my photograph, and he must be made to give it up."

Kate, however, got the little girl pacified, and insured her silence on the subject, by insisting on the absolute certainty that there was of her only being laughed at for her pains, if she again introduced it. To be laughed at, Marjorie did not like any more than did her betters; indeed, she was at the age when children are most sensitive on the point-old enough to be mortified, young enough not to know what to say. Her tongue was thus tied effectually.

And she had done no mischief, since no one but the sister concerned had the most glimmering perception of there being any basis for the fabulous indictment, and since in Kate's eyes the crime was only too venial. She certainly petted and fondled Marjorie extravagantly that day, and gave her things more intrinsically precious than the lost likeness. The world was flooded for her with a new light since the morning. She found no interruptions irksome, and no restrictions unkind. She trotted high and low on errands, with feet that scarcely felt the floor beneath. She moved on air.

And what was the meaning of it all?

Oh, it was very plain, very easy to be understood: it was so delightful to be rid of Pollaxfen, and to see Alice more like her natural self again; and with a happier state of mind had come the feeling that the prospect before her sister had been darker to her distempered imagination than it might prove in reality;—and then Lady Olivia was quite inoffensive for the time being; and she was herself getting so well and strong, and at her own dear, beautiful home again. Surely nothing more was needed to account for a light heart?

For some days it lasted; then came the reaction.

Upon what was she building? When she picked to

pieces the fabric woven of day-dreams and night-wakings, she found it float away into thin air.

Mademoiselle was the kindest person in the house to Kate just then. All the rest were too busy to notice anything amiss; but there were reasons why the little lynx-eyed brunette took a special interest in observing how Meess Kate comported herself at this juncture. We have said that no one of the family at Carnochan found out Pollaxfen's baseness, with the exception of the insulted girl herself: but Mademoiselle Pierrepoint was not of the Newbattle family; she knew all about it.

It entertained her hugely.

But then, what was she to make of this burning brow and these flushed eyelids, with which Monsieur Silverstick, an ape-canaille-bête-had surely nothing to do?

She was, for once in her life, fairly at a loss. All going on well-no quarrels, no worries-and yet the sunshine gone from one face which had so lately been irradiated. It must be that Kate was fonder of this sister, who was so soon to leave them, than she had ever shown herself to be.

"She is lonely and sad, this poor petite,"-a cold hand would be laid gently over the heavy brows, - "her sister goes, and she is left solitaire in this so triste Carnochan, to roam about these dark gloomy woods all day long. Cheer up, mon enfant; you come next. Miladi will soon have another belle-fille, aussi charmante, plus belle que Mademoiselle Alice, to introduce. She brings you out next season, n'est-ce pas? You are not eighteen till July? N'importe-what are a few months, more or less? We will see that Miladi will so herself consider, and that you go à Londres with her tout de suite."

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I do not care to go, Mademoiselle. I prefer to stay here." "You prefer to stay here! Here! Mais ce n'est pas possible! It is not to be believed! Ma chère, you are ill, sick, strengthless; I see you often with the tear in your eye. That Mr Pollaxfen did annoy you much,-that, I did see for myself. Ah, pardon! oui, oui, ma petite, certain it is best not to speak of such things. I did not mean to offend."

"I am not offended," said Kate, in some surprise; "but, Mademoiselle, I assure you that I am not thinking of Mr Pollaxfen with a tear in my eye," smiling at the idea; "he is not very polite to me, but

"Mais oui,-yes, truly; yes, I comprehend what it is you would say. It is nothing to you whether he is polite or not; he is polite to no one, he is

"Alice's future husband," said Alice's sister, quickly. She would not allow a breath of disparagement against the man whom she, of all others, had reason to think slightly of, and her tone expressed its meaning plainly.

Mademoiselle gave her a queer look. "True, true; précisément," she said; "and as Alice's futur you will now only give yourself leave to look upon him."

"Could I ever have looked upon him as anything else? You do not imagine" She bit her lip.

"Non, mon amie, I imagine nothing. But I see something else autre chose-which is not imagine at all. Comment? Ah, so; we speak of this not more. We will be so discreet-prudentes,—we understand what we understand."

In short, she understood to hold her tongue, and that was the great thing. From her secure vantage-ground she had, as we have said, had a bird's-eye view of the affair; and had there been anything going forward in the evenings, she would not have found Rousseau and the peignoir more attractive; but the evenings had been utterly unprofitable, since it was not in the formal circle, and amidst the platitudes which then passed, that languishing murmurs could be safely launched: and accordingly, to the evening hours Pollaxfen had trusted for maintaining his position with regard to his avowed ladylove; but all the tricks, the shifts, the turns of the game, had been manifest to the quick-witted governess, who, when once on the track, had many a time doubled on the pursuer and dogged him, when he was dogging and worrying Kate!

She longed now for a little confidence, just to show how clever she had been, and to have the odd holes and corners of her chart of the scheme filled up. There were one or two little points as to which her present companion alone could have satisfied her; and above all, she yearned to hear to what pitch the traitor had gone, before she had met him (accidentally!), infuriated and checkmated, after his final effort. She had run up against Monsieur ere he had had time to quit the spot.

Vain, however, was it to hope for any relenting in the severe young face. "For at least, she shall not talk of it to me," thought Kate.

"Eh bien," continued Mademoiselle, presently, "it is not

Carnochan, and it is not M. Pollaxfen, and I am not to know what it is. I do not like to see this poor little cat so thin and white. She was stronger, better, when first she arrive; she is too much alone,-she thinks, and gets no rest, n'est-ce pas ? But she must not sit down and weep. Ah, qu'est ce à dire?" compassionately. "She breaks down at nothing!" "You are right, my kind Mademoiselle; I break down at nothing-nothing whatever. I am foolish and weak. You

see yourself that I am not fit for gaieties."

"Vraiment, non; pas à présent. But, my dear Meess Kate, you have one, two months in which to convalesce, to grow well. As soon as this wedding is over—oui, oui-I say no more. She is confuse, bewilder,-she has been en retraite; and the noise, the talk, and all that is so bruyant, -it is too much."

Presently she went away, and came back radiant, with a brimming glass of port-wine in her hand.

She had begged it from the butler; and it quite touched the poor soul, who had her good points as well as other people, to find her little offering received with so much gratitude.

"What it is to have a heart!" she exclaimed mentally in her own language. "For my part, I am not éprise with any one, however agreeable, obliging, and polite, if they have no heart!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

POLLAXFEN IS CARRIED OUT OF HIS DEPTH.

"A lie is troublesome, and needs a good many more to make it out." -TILLOTSON.

Without the assistance of a heart, however, or even of those attributes which the gay Frenchwoman considered next in value, the bridegroom-elect was contriving to progress fairly well in his new suit.

He certainly was diligent enough, in season and out of season. Evelyn was wooed far more industriously than Alice had ever been; and to be permitted to call and take

an arm-chair, to be nodded to when met, and allowed, on one occasion, to act as entertainer, was all the aspirant looked for in return.

He was tolerated, and that was enough.

It may indeed be questioned whether even that satisfaction would have been his had it not been for the sake of the very girl towards whom he now nourished a sentiment of the deepest aversion, and whom it was an object with him, second only to securing Evelyn's support at his marriage, to traduce and create a prejudice against.

Had there been no Kate in the question, it is more than doubtful whether any tie formed by Evelyn's mother would have been strong enough to have made such an intimate endurable to him. There would have been no rudeness,as Lady Olivia observed, no one had ever heard her son say a disagreeable thing,—but he would have been perfectly able to defend himself. On Kate's account alone he forebore. He would not flout the man who was to be her near connection, and who had, moreover, given him such an account of her restoration to health and strength as would have taken him to Scotland ere long at any rate.

The opportunity, coming with the information, made him owe something to so timely a messenger.

The two were to

It wanted but two days to the 21st. gether in Evelyn's rooms discussing the topic, which seemed to have equal interest for both; and Pollaxfen held in his hand a magnificent pendant, as to the taste of which he wished to have his friend's opinion.

"It's to be worn on the day, you know; while I am about it, I may as well do the thing handsomely. I think it is rather neat, this."

The neat article was a blazing mass of brilliants; and in so far as diamonds are always worth looking at, it was certainly superior in its external to its internal attractions, which consisted of the features of the donor.

"I have got Alice here, you see," continued Pollaxfen, opening a locket attached to his watch-chain; "and so I thought she ought to have me. This is a first-rate likeness of her; have you seen it?"

He handed it across.

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Very good," pronounced Evelyn; "but not so good as Kate's.' He had been thinking of Kate all day, excited at the near prospect of seeing her again, and unable to resist