Nell of Shorne Mills

Lady Angleford nodded.

"Yes; and if she was engaged to him when you last saw her, that would

account for her happiness, notwithstanding her poverty. She is an

extremely pretty girl. I remember her quite well. I saw her at your

dinner party, you know. I hope she is going to marry a man worthy of

her. I'll go with you to see her to-morrow, if you'll let me."

Drake stood listening, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set

sternly. Every word they said caused him a pang of pain; and as he

listened, his mind went back to the happy weeks when Nell was engaged to

a man who certainly was not worthy of her.

Lady Angleford looked up at him.

"We were talking of Miss Lorton and her brother, Drake," she said.

"She's a kind of connection of Lady Wolfer's, and lived with them for a

time. I wish you would see the brother and see if he really is too young

to be the resident engineer. It would be so nice to have some one whom

one knows."

"I will see," he said, so grimly that Lady Wolfer glanced up at him with

some surprise; and, as he moved away, Lady Angleford looked after him

and sighed.

"How changed he is!" she said, in a low voice.

"In what way?" asked Lady Wolfer.

The countess was silent for a moment or two.

"He seems as if he were unhappy about something," she said; "as if

something were worrying him. I only saw him twice before he came into

the title, and though he was by no means 'loud' or effusive, he was

bright and cheerful; but now----I noticed the change the moment he came

into the Hall on his return. It seems so strange. He had cause for

anxiety then, for there was a chance of his losing Angleford; but now

one would think he possessed all that a man could desire."

"The vanity of human wishes, my dear!" said Lady Wolfer. "Something may

have happened while he was abroad," she suggested in a low voice.

"You mean a love affair? I don't think so."

The countess glanced toward the piano. She felt sure that Drake was

about to renew his engagement with Lady Luce, and she deemed him the

last man in the world to marry for the sake of "convenience."

Drake moved about the room restlessly, waiting for Luce to rise from the

piano; but she was playing a long piece--an interminable one, as it

seemed to him. Presently he felt for his pocket handkerchief, and, not

finding it, remembered leaving it on the dressing table where Sparling

had placed it. He went into the hall to send a servant for it; but there

was not one in sight, and he went quickly up the stairs and entered his

dressing room. He noticed that most of the electric lights were down,

and, disliking the gloom, went toward the row of switches. They were

fixed to the wall almost opposite Lady Angleford's dressing room, and as

his hand went up to them, he heard a slight sound in the room.