"Oho, ma'am! sits the wind in that quarter? No, trust me, I was never in the lists even." "Well, but you have been at other places. Is there no one-eh "Not a soul." 66 You have heard of Mrs Beaumont's affair?" "And of nothing else." Shocking, was it not? And the Harveys, what are they about?" "I have no notion." "The Delanes and Stirlings sent me such beautiful presents. I had hoped to have had some of them to meet you this week- some of the Delanes, I mean; for the Stirlings, though very good sort of people, are not quite-quite-they are people of no family whatever, you know." 66 'Why, you used to be always with them." But for this so many excellent reasons were adduced, and he was so earnestly assured that the friends in question had never been admitted to any intimacy, that there had never been anything to warrant their expecting to be made welcome to Carnochan,-that it would be unfair to her new neighbours to present those as specimens of Lady Olivia's connections and acquaintance, that even his longsuffering gave way, and he stole a sly look at his watch. The evenings at Castle Kenrick, with their solitary recreation-their inevitable billiards-seemed lively as compared to making one of the formal circle at Carnochan while Lady Olivia talked. Nevertheless, as days passed on, and visitors came and went, the new surroundings, with their attendant chain of fresh ideas and interests, succeeded in some measure in chasing his recent adventure out of Evelyn's head. Now that he was absolutely at Carnochan House, he was not insensible to the fact of it being his mother's home: the girls were all ready and willing to be made friends with; nor was Mr Newbattle, although reserved in manner and peculiar in his habits, an altogether uninteresting study. When encouraged, and taken in the right way, and at the right time, he had plenty to tell; and the subjects he could converse upon were infinitely more to his visitor's taste than was the tasteless prattle of Lady Olivia. Tales of poaching frays, of neighbours' exploits, of the odd ways and humours of the E country people, together with reminiscences of his young days, which had lain fallow in his mind for twenty years, but which were now brought forth to entertain his step-son, were sufficiently worth listening to. The house also was curious, and the histories of its tapestry, armour, and pictures whiled away odd hours. He had not forgotten his dark-eyed incognita, nor his intentions of going back some time soon to see what she would say to such a return; but since he was but thirty miles off, and since he could go any day, he was content to wait for the day to be a convenient one. Just at first his injured hand prevented his shooting and fishing, but even then he could examine the kennels and talk to the keepers. Afterwards he had pretty fair sport, and a good piece of ground to shoot over. As long as he could get away from Lady Olivia, in short, he was quite at his ease; and there being a party in the house, made up expressly on his account, during the next fortnight, she could be dodged successfully: but the very first morning after their departure, he was unlucky enough to be caught and pinned to her apron-string. "My dearest boy, do come here and sit down. I have seen nothing of you for the last ten days, positively nothing. Those people who are gone, quite usurped you. Now let us sit down together, just you and I alone, and have our nice talks as we used to do. First of all, my dear Rupert, you have never told me what you think of my new connections. You cannot fail to like Mr Newbattle, I am sure," she was in excellent humour that morning-"and-and-and-what you think of his daughters?" do "Alice is very pretty." 'Pretty you think she is pretty? That was one thing I wished to know. larly amiable "Is she not?" 66 I am glad of that. By no means. Indeed I can assure you-but perhaps I ought not to prejudice you, a stranger; and I am so anxious that you should like her, should like them all-but really' "Oh, well, never mind." "It is her deceitfulness," burst forth Lady not to mind, and resolved to have it out too. slyest creature in the whole world, I believe. Olivia, unable "She is the You have no idea, and you would not believe it if I were to tell you, the things that girl is capable of doing." "I see you and she do not hit it off." "No, I should hope not. I must tell you one thing she did lately. We were to dine at the Pophams,-old-fashioned people, but of high standing—the first people in the neighbourhood, in short. Well, Alice had not been asked, naturally; but she slipped over there by herself the day before, with a geranium-cutting-fancy taking a geranium-cutting to a place where they keep ten gardeners!—and actually she manoeuvred herself into an invitation. She never told any one of her intentions, and I am convinced she was not wanted the table would have been quite full without her; but Mrs Popham is an easy woman, and allowed herself to be blindfolded. I call it a most underhand trick; the whole thing was unworthy of Mr Newbattle's daughter." "Oh, well," said Evelyn, in whose eyes the offence was rather a joke than otherwise. But when he had said "Oh, well," he could not, for the life of him, think of an excuse. "And the little ones—or at least Bertha is quite as absurd," continued Lady Olivia. "Have you noticed that oblique cast in her eye? It gives her a most unpleasant expression" (it was no longer piquant and interesting). "She ought to be at a good school, if I could persuade myself to send any girl to school. I have got them an excellent governess, as you see; she is greedy and selfish, but she had first-rate recommendations, and I believe she does know how to teach. I have done all for the children that I can, I am sure," with a sigh. "Well, and I am sure, ma'am, they-they are obliged to you," looking about to escape. -with "I don't know about that. Regarding this very governess, we had the most absurd fuss. The girls had found one for themselves—for Bertha and Marjorie, I mean— out consulting anybody; and such a creature as they had got! Quite a low person, quite gross in her speech and common in her manners! It was not her fault, you will say? Certainly not, but it was a very great fault the way Kate behaved about it all. However, I have no wish to trouble you with family matters." "By the way, where is Kate?” "She-well-she is away from home at present, as you know. The fact is," continued Lady Olivia, waxing confi dential, "that Kate,-she is by far the handsomest and most distinguished-looking of them all, my dear Rupert,—but she is a most unmanageable and-and-and altogether impertinent girl. We had no peace, no quiet, no proper rule or order, as long as she was here; and about this matter of changing the governess, she actually disobeyed her father, and defied me!" "Oh!" "She was as stubborn as a mule; and since she was not to be won over, her father was obliged to-to send her away; and she is with that very person now. It is only for a time -only till Mademoiselle Pierrepoint has got herself fairly established here; for had the younger ones had Kate to fall back upon, they would never have owned any authority. Oh, you can have no idea how wild and unruly that girl was!" "So that was it?" "Yes; she stirred up everything that she thought would undermine my supremacy, and no one could do anything with her but that Miss Comline "Miss Comline!" said Evelyn, with a start. "The children have talked to you about her, I suppose. The foolish, headstrong girl took it into her head that Miss Comline was ill-used: it was the greatest nonsense, for I never ill-used anybody in my life; but she quite raved when she heard what I had done. I had merely written to Miss Comline privately, when she was at home for her holidays last month, that she was not the sort of person wanted for the Miss Newbattles, and that it was a mistake altogether her ever having been here. Could anything have been kinder? I only said it was a mistake-I never hinted that it was any fault of hers or of theirs. Miss Comline did not object to what was done, I am sure. She made no reply, and her father came to take away her things. We should have had no scene, no disturbance about the matter, but for Kate, with her ridiculously-overstrung notions. She would see the man himself, and—but it is no use going over it all again." "How long ago," said Evelyn, slowly, "was this?' "About a month. I put up with it as long as I couldI did indeed," catching sight of her son's face. "Indeed, my dear Rupert, it is all very well for those who have never been in a step-mother's place to think it is an easy one. That, it is not. It She can return any "And how long is Kate to stay away?" "That depends entirely on herself. day she likes by choosing to submit to me-to us, I mean— and own that she was in the wrong. In that case I should counsel her father to receive her back; but otherwise," very decidedly, "I certainly shall not. I intend to do my duty, and it is no duty of mine to encourage insubordination and disorder. We get on now very fairly; and by-and-by, we shall do still better. Oh, it really was a blessing to get Kate out of the house!" "So that was Kate," said her son to himself, meditating. "Poor Kate!" Poor Kate's handkerchief lay in his drawer upstairs; and, truth to tell, he had been thinking daily less and less about it. He had thrust it into an empty place on first unwinding it from his hand,-waiting, as he believed, for an opportunity to have it washed without remark; but either the opportunity had not come, or he had forgotten to embrace it. Not that Evelyn was by nature inconstant; he was only young, light-hearted, and prosperous. Pleasant things happened to him every day, and he found almost everybody nice, and quite everybody kind. He met so many people. At every place he went to, he converted strangers into acquaintances, and acquaintances speedily ripened into friends. Invitations poured in upon him from all manner and conditions of men, and the letters awaiting his arrival at Carnochan amounted to a perfect pile. Lady Olivia, indeed, could not conjecture how there came |