of linen and heavy lace to which she was addicted, and her dark,
sensuous, haughty, tender face motionless for the moment, against the
dark background of the leather, she looked like a Vandyke; and at such
times Dartmouth's artistic nature was keenly responsive, and he forgot
to chaff.




IV.


Dartmouth had been at Rhyd-Alwyn two weeks, when Sir Iltyd turned
to him one night as he was leaving the dining-room and asked him to
follow him into the library for a few moments.

"I feel quite alarmed," said Harold to Weir, as the door closed behind
her father. "Do you suppose he is going to tell me that I do not give
satisfaction?"

"Harold!" exclaimed Weir, reprovingly, "I wish you would not talk as
if you were a butler; you look much more dignified than you ever talk.
You look like an English nobleman, and you talk like any ordinary
young man about town."

"My dearest girl, would you have me a Sir Charles Grandison? The
English nobleman of your imagination is the gentleman who perambulates
the pages of Miss Burney's novels. The present species and the young
man about town are synonymous animals."