her at the end of the last season; and told that if she would not
consider her own interests it was unnecessary that she should forget
those of her younger unmarried sisters.

At shooting lodges in the North, and in country houses in the South,
young men were observed to receive the tidings with pained surprise.
More than one of them had given Mrs. Meredith credit for better taste
when it came to choosing a second husband; more than one of them had
felt, indeed, that she was the only woman in the world with an eye
discerning enough to appreciate his own valuable qualities at their true
worth. Could the fact be that she had overlooked those rare gifts? For a
week or so depression sat in many a heart unaccustomed to its presence;
and young ladies, in search of a husband, found, here and there, that
one turned to them whom they had all but given up as hopelessly
indifferent to their charms.

Unconcerned by the lack of enthusiasm aroused by her decision, Lena
Meredith married Sir Arthur Byrne, and in the course of a few months
departed with him to his post on the Black Sea; where the baby Juliet and
her nurse formed an important part of the consular household.

The years passed happily. Sir Arthur was moved and promoted from one
little port to another a trifle more frequented by the ships of his
country, and after a year or so to yet another still larger; so that,
while nothing was too good for Juliet in the eyes of her adopted mother,
and to a lesser extent in those of her father, it happened that she knew
remarkably little of her own land, though few girls were more familiar
with those of other nations. Nor were their wanderings confined to
Europe: Africa saw them, and the southern continent of America; and it
was in that far country that the happy days came to an end, for poor Lady