When that little tea-drinking was over and Maulevrier and his friend
were going away to dress for dinner, Lady Maulevrier detained Mary for a
minute or two by her couch. She took her by the hand with unaccustomed
tenderness.

'My child, I congratulate you,' she said. 'Last night I thought you a
fool, but I begin to think that you are wiser than Lesbia. You have won
the heart of a noble young man.'




CHAPTER XXIII.

'A YOUNG LAMB'S HEART AMONG THE FULL-GROWN FLOCKS.'


For three most happy days Mary rejoiced in her lover's society,
Maulevrier was with them everywhere, by brookside and fell, on the lake,
in the gardens, in the billiard-room, playing propriety with admirable
patience. But this could not last for ever. A man who has to win name
and fortune and a home for his young wife cannot spend all his days in
the primrose path. Fortunes and reputations are not made in dawdling
beside a mountain stream, or watching the play of sunlight and shadow on
a green hill-side; unless, indeed, one were a new Wordsworth, and even
then fortune and renown are not quickly made.

And again, Maulevrier, who had been a marvel of good-nature and
contentment for the last eight weeks, was beginning to be tired of this
lovely Lakeland. Just when Lakeland was daily developing into new