"Yes, I have been to Arden Court," the traveller answered, with rather a
puzzled air. "And your papa lives at Arden?--I did not know he had any
other daughter," he added in a lower key, to himself rather than to his
companion. "Then I suppose I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss--"

"My name is Lovel My father is Marmaduke Level, of Arden Court."

The traveller looked at her with a still more puzzled air, as if singularly
embarrassed by this simple announcement. He recovered himself quickly,
however, with a slight effort.

"I am proud and happy to have made your acquaintance, Miss Lovel," he said;
"your father's family is one of the best and oldest in the North Riding."

After this, they talked of many things; of Clarissa's girlish experiences
at Belforet; of the traveller's wanderings, which seemed to have extended
all over the world.

He had been a good deal in India, in the Artillery, and was likely to
return thither before long.

"I had rather an alarming touch of sunstroke a year ago," he said, "and was
altogether such a shattered broken-up creature when I came home on sick
leave, that my mother tried her hardest to induce me to leave the service;
but though I would do almost anything in the world to please her, I could
not bring myself to do that; a man without a profession is such a lost
wretch. It is rather hard upon her, poor soul; for my elder brother died
not very long ago, and she has only my vagabond self left. 'He was the only
son of his mother, and she was a widow.'"