why, what can that mean? Oh, I see."
And he smiled, for he had often been
amused at this wayward enmity, and had
deplored the inconsistency and want of
sense it led to.

A favourite stroll with Conway was that
pleasant walk out of the town, up to the
river. He began at last to regard that
bridge as the temporary link between the
two women's natures, as something with a
more mysterious significance in it than was
involved in its elegant iron foliage and
arabesques; and in his own mind he gave
it another name, the name which this little
narrative bears.

One evening he had wandered to Laura
Bridge, and found Miss Panton moodily
regarding it and the few natives passing
across it. She began to speak at once,
with excitement.

"Surely, no one ever heard of such a
thing a gentleman's place to be swarming
over with the low mobs of a town. It
should have been put down long ago, as I
tell my father."

"The fashion now is," said Conway, " to
encourage the poor people's parks, and that
sort of thing; keeps them from troubling
us in other ways. But is it all settled?"

"Yes; I have got papa to agree at last, and
next week the men are to take it down."

"Have you thought seriously," he said,
"of the dissatisfaction anything like
stopping up a right of way, a watercourse, a
pump even, is sure to cause? There will be
plenty to set them on and work them up."

"I know that," she said, excitedly.
"Who do you think is the leader — I don't
mean in the streets, after the radical way,
but that leads the gossips in the drawing-
rooms and lodging-houses of St. Arthur's?"

"Well, I might guess."

"Yes, Mr. Conway, a particular friend of
mine, and who wishes to be one of yours, too."

"Does she?" said he, smiling. " I must
seem ungrateful."

"You will seem what is only right,
then," she went on, warmly. " Of course,
we know her, and she comes to dine
tomorrow. We carry on that farce, but it is
owing to our two fathers. Now tell me,
Mr. Conway, what you see in her, as they
call it; for you like her, I am told."

"I," said Conway, wishing to add some
more scenes to the drama. " I only look
on at a distance from the deck of my
yacht, as it were. But she seems to have
a strange and curious nature, out of the
common, but capable of generous acts."

She stamped her foot. " The bridge
shall go down, into the water, even if there
should be a riot in the place. You don't
know her—you can't."

"Of course not," said he, smiling.

"She hates me, and do you know why?
Because I am rich, richer than she is, or ever
will be. It began at school, when we were
made rich. She tried to crawl and fawn
on me, but it sickened me, and I wouldn't
have it, and then she turned against me,
and has been so ever since of course, in a
polite way."

Conway wondered at the discrepancy of
the two versions, but he knew enough of
the world to see that both could be sincere
and genuine.

"But we shall meet to-morrow at dinner
like ladies. You shall see at least she will
carry that farce out. I don't profess to be
an actress. She can come to eat with us."

"I think," said he, coldly, " you will
find there is some reason for this. She is
compelled by her father."

"You are quite turning her champion,"
said she, looking at him excitedly.

"I believe she is sincere and true in
whatever she takes up. But of course I am
quite outside the politics, as we may call
them, of this little place. But now, Miss
Panton, it seems hard, does it not, for these
poor rustics—?"

"Oh yes! you are quite on her side!"

"Such a pretty bridge, too an ornament
to your place and to the district."

"I don't care," she said, " every bit of it
shall be pulled to pieces next week. I shall
look on at the operation, and I shall invite
my friends to come. My dear old school-
fellow, I shall take care to have her. I am
told she swears by you all about the town,
says, I suppose, that you are the type of
chivalry. Of course, in a place like this,
where the walls have ears and tongues, it is
very probable that these praises will come
to your ears. But," she added, with a
curious, questioning look, " what do you
think of her? You must know us all by
this time, pretty well. She, of course,
being a parson's daughter, had great opportunities
of picking up from the curates that
pedantic sort of thing that makes a show. Of
course you think me wretchedly ignorant?"

"I attempt to pronounce on you!" he
said. " But Miss Jessica champions me!
That should prejudice me."

A worried fretful look came into the
heiress's face. "Yes," she repeated
mechanically, " we are going to pull down the
bridge. Within a week, the man tells us,
there will not be a vestige of it."

As he followed her light figure, that
seemed to float across the bridge named