Nell of Shorne Mills

"Oh, but I'm English now," said Lady Angleford, "and, being a convert,

I'm more English than the English. What a charming specimen of your

country you have in Miss Lorton! I don't want to rob you of her, but do

you think you could spare her to come to us at Anglemere? We are going

there almost directly."

Lady Wolfer replied absently: "Yes, certainly; ask her. It will not matter to me."

"Not matter!" said Lady Angleford. "Why, I should have thought you would

have suffered pangs at the mere thought of parting with her. She is an

angel! Did you hear her sing just now? I don't know much about your

English larks, but I was comparing her with them----"

Lady Wolfer fanned herself vigorously.

"Ask her, by all means," she said. "Oh, yes; of course I shall miss

her."

As she spoke, Sir Archie came toward her. A faint flush rose to her

face. Her eyes fell upon the white flower in his buttonhole.

"Why--how----Is that my flower?" she said, in a low voice.

"Yes," he replied. "It is yours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has

any one a better right to it?"

She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.

"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in

vain to keep steady. "You--you are attracting attention----"

She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with

sideway looks of curiosity.

"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the

other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You--you

are cold--and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot

bear----"

"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will

speak to you later--after--after some of them have gone. No; not

to-night. Do not remain here any longer."

"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the

room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very

little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a

cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.

Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and

laughed.

He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and

speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual

observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a

desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and

presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.