youth might, issued from a trellised arbour
artfully concealed in an angle of the pleasance.

Esther uttered a startled exclamation, and, in
catching back her hand, scratched it somewhat
smartly with a thorn.

"I am the unluckiest fellow in the world,"
exclaimed the giant, at once contracting into
the ordinary dimensions, " in. practical jokes!
See, now, what I have done! My savage kinsman,
Hurlo-Thrumbo the Three-headed, could
do no more than shed your blood. Let me
assist you, I beg."

The hand had to submit, and afforded George
an opportunity of noticing what we have learned
already;—that it was a pretty hand, but one that
had not spared itself in the battle of life, and
now accepted the thorn-scratch with the
indifference of a veteran.

Esther thanked him, and murmured some
excuse for her intrusion.

"My dear young lady, not a word," said the
baronet. "It was by the merest chance a
fortunate one for me that I rose so early, and
wandered hither; a corner precious to my sister,
but which I rarely visit. I observe," he
continued, "that you called me by my name. Was
that a guess?"

"Not quite. I saw you last night, for a
moment, on the stairs."

"You knew me then?"

"I—I had been looking at your picture,"
said Esther, hastily. "But, indeed, I might
more properly ask, how do you know me?" she
added, laughing to cover her embarrassment.

"I—I had been questioning my butler,"
replied Sir George, with affected hesitation.
"Come, Miss Vann, since the giant has a
fancy for retaining you in his den (though
without, I do assure you, any culinary purpose),
let him do what he may to atone for the detention,
by showing you the treasures of his garden."

Sir George looked at his companion. Esther
was without a bonnet, and the burnished hair,
in its smooth bands, was the sole protection to
the little shapely head, well set upon a white
and not too slender neck. Her countenance
betrayed a rare mixture of firmness and
sensibility. Her mouth and chin might have been
cut in stone, so inexorable was their expression;
while, on the other hand, her ready colour,
moistening eye, and an occasional quick nervous
movement in conversing, betrayed the
excitability of a nature that must have attained the
self-government Esther usually displayed.

She wore a dress of poor material, with, here
and there, a neat though palpable darn, but
adapting itself perfectly to her little, faultless
figure, and set off with collar and wristbands
like the driven snow.

It would seem that Sir George speedily forgot
his promise concerning the flowers; oddly
enough, Miss Vann appears to have forgotten it
also. Certain it is that, without any pretence of
visiting the choice parterres, the two strolled on,
from walk to walk, in a state of perfect contentment.
It would be difficult to say which had been
the more surprised. Expecting in Esther a half-
educated girl, whom a few polished remarks,
made in an easy, patronising way, would more
than satisfy, perhaps instruct, the baronet found
himself engaged with one whose information
seemed fully equal to his own, in whose taste
he could detect no flaw, and whose modes of
expression, singularly terse and clear, were
wholly free from those conventionalities which
are frequently indicative of superficial education.

As for Esther, the more she listened to her
companion's discourse, the more overpowering
became her amazement that a nature so
refined should have been prompted to seek
such an association as that which
impended! Good soul as she knew her aunt to
be, Esther's taste and judgment had long since
convinced her that the worthy woman was not
above, if indeed she might not be considered a
shade below, the station to which she belonged.
Could there be some misconception? Or was
it an idle jest? The latter theory did not seem
to harmonise with Sir George's character and
bearing. Was one or other of the parties mad?
If so, which?

"Why did you look at me in that quick
way?" asked George, abruptly, but with a
smile.

"Did I?" said Esther, caught in the fact.

"Yes, more than once; and as I do not
remember," continued George, " that my
observations were, in either instance, of a startling
character, hence my curiosity. You must have
discovered by this time that I am a tame and
civil-spoken monster, and can have no serious
misgivings on that score. Come, Miss Vann,
something prompted that quick movement. You
hesitate? Then I proceed to guess. You have
been debating in your mind whether there is
not in my family a slight taint of—of
insanity——"

Esther coloured.

"—and endeavouring," continued George,
"to detect some evidence of it in my face?"

The blush deepened.

"An eloquent answer," said the young man,
laughing. " Now tell me, Miss Vann, is it, or
is it not, incumbent on us to observe a solemn
pledge?"

"How can you ask?"

"At hazard of everything?"

"Yes, at——"

Esther made a sudden pause. A thought,
suggested she hardly knew how—most probably
by a remark she had heard overnight—flashed
across her mind.

"He has had a love-quarrel with with the
lady they spoke of, at the Haie. This absurd
proposal to my aunt was made in pique and
passion. Wrong—foolish—cruel to all three!"

"You don't answer me," said George.

"Nor do you need the assurance of a nursery-
governess," said Esther, rather spitefully,
"that every promise should be kept, unless—
unless——"

"What?"

"—cancelled by its wicked rashness."

"I should have said, a deliberate promise."

"There is a deliberation in passion itself,"
said Esther. "I spoke, of course, of that rashness