"Yes," said Violet, half convinced, "I
suppose so."

They were entering the terrace, when she
drew Pauline back suddenly. "There he is,"
she said, hurriedly.

"Well," said Pauline, laughing, "we are not
afraid to meet him?"

"No—not now—at least for a moment."

Fermor was coming out of his house,
magnificent as a decorated Apollo Belvidere. He was
smoothed, and brushed, and polished, and wore
virgin gloves of the most delicate grey in the
world; and the delicate grey fingers were
closed delicately upon a packet of yellow-toned
pamphlets—new works of the well-known Roger
le Garçon school. In his button-hole he had a
fresh flower. He passed out of his own gate,
opened the next gate, went up the steps, and gave
a dainty knock as if he were doing "a shake" upon
the piano. Pauline, always ready with assuring
doctrine, had not a word to say. Not in pale
grey gloves, and with a flower at its button-
hole, does the charitable Misericordia society
visit its sick. Brother Fermor's "habit" was
scarcely spiritual enough.

They had to think of other things. There
was the Day of Execution fixed for the morrow,
the awful presentation to the Queen-mother.
Violet, agitated by her new troubles, scarcely
slept that night, but tossed and rocked as if she
were on the waves of a real ocean. The utter
wreck of a night's rest is not much loss for a
young girl; but, looking in the glass, which she
did anxiously as soon as she had set foot upon
land, she saw red rings round her eyes, and
flushed spots upon her cheeks.

The great domed black boxes of "Lady Laura
Fermor and suite," each with a coronet at the
hasps, and wrapped carefully in a canvas paletot,
had come down into Eastport, and had been
got up-stairs into the genteel lodgings. Filtering
the suite carefully, a residuum fell to the
bottom, and resolved itself into one single maid,
who was called Gunter. Gunter was delighted
to get home again from what she called "Knees,"
but which was spelt "Nice," and which, as
lying in a foreign land, and being in the hands
of foreigners, she held, entailed a loss of caste
in those who employed her. She professed
many times her delight at finding herself home
again in "a Christian country."

Fermor had been with them early on the
morning of their arrival, and had been encircled
by cold arms. He was a little nervous, though
he did not acknowledge it to himself; for he
was, at least, outnumbered. The girls
welcomed him with the artificial blandishments
of fashionable affection, and talked to him
and put questions as if company were by, and
he was Colonel Silvertop, Grenadier Guards.
They felt that this was acting, and they felt,
too, the absurdity of it, but could not help
it. Their voices would fall into the ball-room
cadence, and were, perhaps, foreign to the
original key.

"We are dying to see her;" they always
called Violet her. "I am sure she is like Lady
Mantower's girl, you used to admire so much."
This was Alicia Mary's speech.

"You must make up your minds, my dears,
to be frights near her. Even as a boy, Charles,
you were the most difficile person in taste. She
shall go out with us in Town, all jewels and lace,
and the richest dresses. I like those stately
queen-like creatures."

"O mamma, and she can take us to court,
and we shall walk behind her, every one asking
who that magnificent woman is?"

With his mouth expressing sourness, and
some impatience in his tone, Fermor broke in.
"I don't understand," he said, "you run on so
fast. As for being a stately creature, and that
sort of thing, she is a very nice unassuming
girl; and as for those fine dresses and drawing-
rooms, we shall be too poor to be thinking of
such things. I couldn't afford it."

"I hope not," said Lady Laura, gravely.
"No plebeian saving and scraping, I hope.
Making a handsome show is not so dear a thing
after all; and that ten or fifteen thousand
pounds, for we are disputing how much it was
you told us——"

"Ten, mamma," said Blanche.

"What do you all mean?" said Fermor,
turning very red. "Who was talking of ten or
fifteen thousand pounds? I wasn't. If you
mean Violet's fortune, she has next to nothing;
and," he added, with an attempt at generous
emotion, "she doesn't require it."

"Well, be it ten, or nine, or eleven, you must
make a show on it if you wish to get on. It is
very little, my dear Charles; for your father
always said you would want plenty of money to
keep you alive."

"But," said Fermor, bluntly, "we had better
understand this once for all. I am not one of
your mercenary people. From the first, I said
I never would look out for money. In fact, it
always seemed to me a—a sort of drawback, a
kind of manufacturing thing. What I wanted
was a person who would suit me exactly, and I at
last succeeded in finding her. Violet," he added,
looking round with a sort of pride, "will not have
a sixpence of her own, literally not a sixpence."

The family looked from one to the other,
with blankness mingled with contempt. Fermor
saw their glances, and became aggressive.

"You," he said, "who naturally think the
whole of life to be one long ball——"

"Hush!" said Lady Laura, calmly; "don't
reproach them. You have not, I hope, let these
people take you in? I am sure you are too
sensible for that."

"Who says so?" said Fermor, sharply.
"Perhaps that will be the next thing."

"Well," said Lady Laura, "you are old
enough now, Charles, to know what is best for
yourself. I tried to bring you up as well as I
could to a certain age. The thing must go on
now, and we must make the best of it. What
time," added she, calmly, "are we to see your
Miss Manuel?"

"O," said Fermor, constrainedly, "don't put
yourself out. Any time to-morrow."