grew quickly more pronounced; so that at the end of a month, when he
found her, for the first time walking alone by the lake, and proposed to
her inside the first two minutes of their encounter, she accepted him
almost as promptly, and with very nearly as much enthusiasm.

"I want to talk to you about the child, little Juliet," she said, a day
or two later. "Or rather, though I want to talk about her, perhaps I had
better not, for I can tell you almost nothing that concerns her."

"My dear," said Sir Arthur, "you needn't tell me anything, if you
don't like."

"But that's just the tiresome part," she returned, "I should like you to
know everything, and yet I must not let you know. She is not mine, of
course, but beyond that her parentage must remain a secret, even from
you. Yet this I may say: she is the child of a friend of mine, and there
is no scandal attached to her birth, but I have taken all responsibility
as to her future. Are you, Arthur, also prepared to adopt her?"

"Darling, I will adopt dozens of them, if you like," said her infatuated
betrothed. "Juliet is a little dear, and I am very glad we shall always
have her."

In England, the news of Lena Meredith's engagement caused a flutter of
excitement and disappointment. It had been hoped that she would make a
great match, and she received many letters from members of her family and
friends, pointing out the deplorable manner in which she was throwing
herself away on an impecunious young baronet who occupied an obscure
position in the Consular Service. She was begged to remember that the
Duke of Dachet had seemed distinctly smitten when he was introduced to