that cannot be done in the country," answered Violet, not meeting his eyes as she spoke.

"Of course there are!" said Sir James, smiling with intense satisfaction, and looking triumphantly at Miss Mordaunt and her brother. "I told you you couldn't spoil her!"

"And I agree with you," said Miss Mordaunt, her kind intelligent face full of sympathy as she looked in Violet's, and met the shy sweetness of the eyes that were raised to her's. "Violet is going to live her life, not sleep through it."

CHAPTER XX.

"THINGS is a bit more lively than they has been, Mrs. Cox!" observed the butler to the housekeeper, after completing his duties in the well-filled drawing-room at Glenmore; "for my part, I like it."

"And so do I, Mr. Lowe; it's more what I've been used to all my life, to see plenty of company. When her ladyship was a child of course it was a dead-alive sort of situation, but I lived on in 'opes, and I must say things have taken a pleasant turn."

"I suppose, now, Mrs. Cox, there'll be some of these fine gentlemen after our young lady? You ladies always hear the news first, you know!" he added slily.

"We keep our eyes open, sir, that's all," retorted the housekeeper; "Lady Glenmore's own maid does say as many people talked of the eldest son of the Duke of Beechfield. He's

here now, I see; fine thing for that family to get our lady's property, for they're poor enough."

"Yes, reg'lar gilded poverty, that!" said Lowe, sententiously. Another bell gave him warning that if the ladies had done with him for that night, the gentlemen had not; and that dining-room and smoking-room must be attended to. With a view to the handsome tips his services would bring him, Lowe obeyed the summons with alacrity.

Violet was an early riser, and enjoyed many a fresh morning run to the Vicarage, and a walk with Jessie before her duties as hostess required her at Glenmore. What a bright, graceful hostess she was! How carefully the tastes of her visitors were considered, and how she contrived to make herself universally liked, surprised even Miss Mordaunt, who marvelled at the self-control and gentleness of bearing in one so young. Youth, in its spirited energy and lack of experience, is apt to tread too heavily on the corns of those whose lives have been lived in a different groove; and to seek too impetuously to reform errors of life and judgment in others. But Violet, although painfully awake to the

shallowness of many of the natures about her, many times excused them to herself by reflecting that this was the way they had been reared, that this atmosphere enveloped their very cradles, and that only a few can break through the strong hedge of conventionality, worldly prudence, and inherited indifference, and lead independent lives.

Amongst the visitors at present were Mr. Norman, M.P., his wife, daughters, and son. To many worldly eyes it was plain that Mrs. Norman's ambition was by no means limited to the brilliant marriage she had secured for her eldest daughter; her son Charles, who had been appointed attaché to the British Embassy in Paris, and was leaving her in a few days, was now the chief object of her maternal solicitude. Until now she had hoped and believed that his repeated rides and drives over to Glenmore from Coates Park had been the result of his own good sense, and a desire to make himself agreeable to the countess; now it was plain to her that Jessie Clayton-a simple clergyman's daughter without a penny!-had been his attraction.

Folly of follies! her visit was spoiled, for

when Jessie was at Glenmore, Mrs. Norman devoted herself entirely to keeping the young girl close to herself with one excuse or another, so as to prevent any possible communication between Charles and the object of his admiration. A dowager of long experience and some friendly feeling observed to her when alone,"You have a little difficulty to arrange,

see."

I

Thank you, yes," replied the anxious mother, glad to relax her vigilance and converse, Jessie having gone home. "You see, it would be so absurd! True, my son will one day have Coates Park; but the girls must get their portions, and of course the boy will thank me byand-by for saving him. A mother's duties are a great trial at times! I shall be glad when he is safe in Paris."

"A capital place to cure sentiment!" responded the other lady, encouragingly.

At last the house was empty. The only persons at Glenmore were the countess, Miss Mordaunt, and Fraulein Klein, and the latter was about to return to Germany to be her father's housekeeper.

After luncheon on Sunday, Violet and Miss