daughter; and she returns my affection with all her heart. She has
excellent qualities--prudent, cheerful, sweet-tempered; with good sense
enough to understand what her place is in the world, as distinguished
from her place in my regard. I have taken care, for her own sake, never
to leave that part of the question in any doubt. It would be cruel
kindness to deceive her as to her future position when she marries. I
shall take good care that the man who pays his addresses to her is a man
in her rank of life. I know but too well, in the case of one of my own
relatives, what miseries unequal marriages bring with them. Excuse me
for troubling you at this length on domestic matters. I am very fond
of Isabel; and a girl's head is so easily turned. Now you know what her
position really is, you will also know what limits there must be to the
expression of your interest in her. I am sure we understand each other;
and I say no more."

Hardyman listened to this long harangue with the immovable gravity which
was part of his character--except when Isabel had taken him by surprise.
When her Ladyship gave him the opportunity of speaking on his side,
he had very little to say, and that little did not suggest that he had
greatly profited by what he had heard. His mind had been full of Isabel
when Lady Lydiard began, and it remained just as full of her, in just
the same way, when Lady Lydiard had done.

"Yes," he remarked quietly, "Miss Isabel is an uncommonly nice girl, as
you say. Very pretty, and such frank, unaffected manners. I don't deny
that I feel an interest in her. The young ladies one meets in society
are not much to my taste. Miss Isabel is my taste."

Lady Lydiard's face assumed a look of blank dismay. "I am afraid I have
failed to convey my exact meaning to you," she said.