'Because I never heard any goof of him.'

'But he has reformed, it seems,' said Mr. Darrell, 'and is leading
quite a steady life at Cumber, the Collingwoods tell me. Augusta and
I called at the Rectory this morning, and the Rector and his wife
talked a good deal of him. I was rather pleased with him, I confess,
just now.'

Milly looked up at her father gratefully. Poor child! how innocently
and unconsciously she betrayed her secret! and how little she
thought of the jealous eyes that were watching her! I saw Julian
Stormont's face darken with an angry look, and I knew that he had
already discovered the state of Milly's feelings in relation to
Angus Egerton.

He was still with us when Mr. Egerton came to dinner two days later.
I shall never forget that evening. The day was oppressively warm,
with that dry sultry heat of which there had been so much during the
latter part of the summer; and as the afternoon advanced, the air
grew still, that palpable stillness which so often comes before a
thunder-storm. Milly had been full of life and vivacity all day,
flitting from room to room with a kind of joyous restlessness. She
took unusual pains with her toilette for so simple a party, and came
into my room looking like Titania in her gauzy white dress, with
half-blown blush-roses in her hair, and more roses in a bouquet at
her waist.

Mr. Egerton came in a little later than the party from the Rectory,
and after shaking hands with Mr. Darrell, made his way at once to