"Good-night, my love," he answered, drawing her toward him, and kissing
her sweet face. "Tell Mrs. Vane I will not have you kept out till
morning hours. You are but a child yet. Mr. Carlyle, will you ring? I am
debarred from seeing my daughter to the carriage."

"If your lordship will allow me--if Lady Isabel will pardon the
attendance of one little used to wait upon young ladies, I shall be
proud to see her to her carriage," was the somewhat confused answer of
Mr. Carlyle as he touched the bell.

The earl thanked him, and the young lady smiled, and Mr. Carlyle
conducted her down the broad, lighted staircase and stood bareheaded by
the door of the luxurious chariot, and handed her in. She put out her
hand in her frank, pleasant manner, as she wished him good night. The
carriage rolled on its way, and Mr. Carlyle returned to the earl.

"Well, is she not a handsome girl?" he demanded.

"Handsome is not the word for beauty such as hers," was Mr. Carlyle's
reply, in a low, warm tone. "I never saw a face half so beautiful."

"She caused quite a sensation at the drawing-room last week--as I hear.
This everlasting gout kept me indoors all day. And she is as good as she
is beautiful."

The earl was not partial. Lady Isabel was wondrously gifted by nature,
not only in mind and person but in heart. She was as little like a
fashionable young lady as it was well possible to be, partly because she
had hitherto been secluded from the great world, partly from the care