has brought these people here--this Monsieur de Gemosac, and the
other--what is his name? Dormer Colville. You have heard of my
magnificent possibilities. And I--I had forgotten all about them."

He threw out his arms in a gesture of gay contempt; for even in the
dark he could not refrain from adding to the meaning of mere words a
hundred-fold by the help of his lean hands and mobile face.

"I have heard of it, of course," she admitted, "from several people.
But I have heard most from Captain Clubbe. He takes it more
seriously than you do. You do not know, because he is one of those
men who are most silent with those to whom they are most attached.
He thinks that it is providential that my uncle should have had the
desire to educate you, and that you should have displayed such
capacity to learn."

"Capacity?" he protested--"say genius! Do not let us do things by
halves. Genius to learn--yes; go on."

"Ah! you may laugh," Miriam said, lightly, "but it is serious
enough. You will find circumstances too strong for you. You will
have to go to France to claim your--heritage."

"Not I, if it means leaving Farlingford for ever and going to live
among strange people, like the Marquis de Gemosac, for instance, who
gives me the impression of a thousand petty ceremonies and a million
futile memories."

He turned and lifted his face to the breeze which blew from the sea
over flat stretches of sand and seaweed--the crispest, most