"I have come to ask of you a great favor, Lady Lisle," he said. "You
have perhaps heard of my young kinsman, Basil Carruthers?"

"The heir of Ulverston?" she said. "Certainly. He is one of the prizes
in the matrimonial market at present, colonel."

Colonel Mostyn drew a very animated and interesting portrait of his
young charge.

"He wants modernizing; his ideas are dated two hundred years back. Lady
Lisle, there is no one who could work such wonders for him as you."

"What could I do?" she asked, with a conscious smile.

"You could modernize him and humanize him. Will you allow me to
introduce him to you? And will you take him in hand a little--teach him
something of life as it is, not as he dreams of it?"

"What if he burns his wings, like many other silly moths?" she asked,
laughingly.

"It would do him all the good in the world," he replied, with
enthusiasm. "Will you believe, Lady Lisle, that he never admired any
one, not even Lady Evelyn Hope? He never admired any face until he saw
yours last evening." That piqued her. "I have never seen anything like
his indifference to all ladies. Dear Lady Lisle, you are the brilliant
sun that alone can melt this icicle. I assure you, that his mother and
myself are in despair."