gance in buying them two magnificent bouquets from a window in the Boulevards. They lunched together, and drove in the Bois, Milly provokingly declaring she would not consent to his going, as he had told her only two days before he thought it awfully stupid, and quite beneath a man to sit behind horses when he didn't hold the reins himself. But Guy laughed, and persisted, declaring that, if they didn't take him, he would hire the very worst fiâcre on the stand, and disgrace them by bowing pointedly whenever he passed them. So they chatted all sorts of gay nonsense, and time sped swiftly, as it always does when folk are happy.

Guy will never forget that day. Poor Guy! Was Cleopatra, was Semiramiswere any of the sirens of old more seductive, more maddening than this woman,

whose glorious eyes he was looking into? Guy would not have admitted it.

How bright the day was!-how blue the sky, traversed by clouds like little white puffs of swan-down!-how the birds sang!-how blithe and insouciants looked the Parisians, their gaiety unshadowed by any prescience of the bitter future !

"Du mal qu'un amour ignoré

Nous fait souffrir,

J'en porte l'âme dechiré

Jusqu'à mourir,"

hummed Guy from the lovely "Chanson de Fortunio," as he dressed; but somehow he did not altogether feel as if his love would be ignored, and that he should carry his broken heart to the grave.

144

CHAPTER VIII.

DOLORES IN PARIS.

DINNER was nearly over, when a waiter

came in and handed a slip of paper

to Mr. Vivian. Was the gentleman there, he asked, whose name was written ?-he had already taken it to three rooms.

"Sir Guy Wentworth," read Mr. Vivian, handing it across the table.

"It is Monsieur ?" the waiter inquired. "Yes."

Then there was a gentleman below who desired very particularly to see him.

"Excuse me a moment," said Guy. "It is most likely Adrian. May I bring him up, if it is ?"

"By all means," and rising, Guy follow

ed the waiter downstairs.

the door he saw his servant.

"What is it, Stevens ?"

Just outside

"I beg your pardon, Sir Guy, for disturbing you," said the man, hesitating a little, "but I did not know what to do under the circumstances."

"What is it? Be quick!" exclaimed Guy, impatiently.

"Well, Sir Guy, the fact is, I just met the-the young lady at Rouen to whom you sent me with a note, and she ran up to me, crying, and asking to be taken to you, and I didn't know what to do. I thought you wouldn't like me to leave her wandering about the streets by herself at this time of night."

"Good God!" cried Guy, involuntarily, a great horror creeping across him. "And so I took her to the hotel, and

VOL. I.

Ι

came on straight to you, Sir Guy. What had I best do ?"

Captain Charteris has not come, has

he ?" Guy asked hurriedly.

66

Well, Sir Guy, I just saw him in a cab as I crossed the boulevards; but I wouldn't stop.❞

Guy muttered a furious imprecation under his breath,

"I will come at once," he said-" stay, take a cab and go back to the hotel. If Captain Charteris is in the sitting-room with-with the lady, make some excuse and get him before I come."

away

"Yes, Sir Guy ;" and Stevens hurried off with a face perfectly inscrutable.

Guy tried to assume an indifferent expression as he remounted the stairs, but when he entered the room his face was so white and anxious that every eye turned inquiringly upon him.