To one gentleman present the interim before rejoining the ladies was
unmitigatedly dull, even though the talk ran on his favorite
topics---horse-flesh and hunting. He was in love, he thought
complacently, and Lady Louise's eyes had sparkled to-day and her smiles
had flashed their bewildering brightness upon him more radiantly than
ever before.

"How pleased my mother will be!" Sir Everard thought. "I will ask Lady
Louise this very night. An earl's daughter--though a bankrupt--is a
fitting mate for a Kingsland."

Lady Louise sat at the piano, the soft light falling full on her pale,
statuesque face, and making an aureole around her fair, shapely head.

Sir Everard Kingsland crossed over and stood beside her, and Lord and
Lady Carteret exchanged significant glances, and smiled.

It was a very desirable thing, indeed; they had brought Louise down for
no other earthly reason; and Louise was playing her cards, and playing
them well.

If Sir Everard had one taste stronger than another it was his taste for
music, and Lady Louise held him spell-bound now. She played, and her
fingers seemed inspired; she sung, and few non-professionals sung like
that.

The chain of brittle glass that bound the captive beside her grew
stronger. A wife who could bewitch the hours away with such music as
this would be no undesirable possession for a _blasé_ man. He stooped