aches and pains, did not fail to tell him how "Miss 'Lena, like
aborned angel dropped right out of 'tarnity, had been in thar,
burning her skin to a fiery red, a-tryin' to get up a tip-top dinner."

"So ho!" thought the young man, "that explains it;" and turning on
his heel, he walked back to the house just as the last bell was
ringing for dinner.

On entering the dining-room, he found all the family assembled,
except 'Lena. She had excused herself on the plea of a severe
headache, and now in her own room was chiding herself for being so
much affected by a remark accidentally overheard. What did she care
if Durward did think her plain? He was nothing to her, and never
would be--and again she bathed her head, which really was aching
sadly.

"And so 'Lena's got the headache," said John Jr. "Well, I don't
wonder, cooking all the dinner as she did."

"What do you mean?" asked Anna, while Mrs. Livingstone's angry frown
bade her son keep silence,

Filial obedience, however, was not one of John Jr.'s cardinal
virtues, and in a few words, he repeated what Aunt Milly had told
him, adding aside to Durward, "_This_ explains the extreme rosiness
which so much offended your lordship. When next you see her, you'll
change your mind."

Suddenly remembering that his grandmother had not been introduced, he
now presented her to Durward. The _Noble's_ blood had long been