drove away. The sun shone still, but the day's brightness had gone out
for Barbara Hare.

"How does he know the earl so well? How does he know Lady Isabel?" she
reiterated in her astonishment.

"Archibald knows something of most people," replied Miss Corny. "He saw
the earl frequently, when he was in town in the spring, and Lady Isabel
once or twice. What a lovely face hers is!"

Barbara made no reply. She returned home with Miss Carlyle, but her
manner was as absent as her heart, and that had run away to East Lynne.



CHAPTER VIII.

MR. KANE'S CONCERT.

Before Lord Mount Severn had completed the fortnight of his proposed
stay, the gout came on seriously. It was impossible for him to move away
from East Lynne. Mr. Carlyle assured him he was only too pleased that he
should remain as long as might be convenient, and the earl expressed his
acknowledgments; he hoped soon to be re-established on his legs.

But he was not. The gout came, and the gout went--not positively laying
him up in bed, but rendering him unable to leave his rooms; and this
continued until October, when he grew much better. The county families
had been neighborly, calling on the invalid earl, and occasionally
carrying off Lady Isabel, but his chief and constant visitor had been