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63 ' ‘ e JOCELYNE.
She rustledout of the room in her
gretty vivacious way, without giving
im leisure to protest: so that he was
constrained to follow her. When in
the luncheon.-room, she hovered round
him, pouring him out some. wine,-
cutting the bread even,-lwhile he,.
looking on, had not the coura :'e to in-
terfere, so exquisite was the pleasure
it gave him to see her do it. He tried
to eat but failed. When he had drunk
.3 glass of wine, he rose. '
- ‘ I cannot eat,” he said, with a
smile: “ you have isuffied me. Now
will yo tell me all I refused to hear
yesterday? There was some one
news-’
“ No, I was only joking. A But I am
in fresh trouble. Lord lunden-you
remember I met him two months ago
-spoke to grandpa yesterday, and
told him I was the light ‘of his eyes,
and all the rest of it; and grandpa.
thinks I should listen to him. Do you
know the man, Don?”
“ Yes; he is a dark, handsome man.
I know him very well.’’ -
“ And don’t.like him ‘P Well, neither
do I: so we won’t waste any more
time talking about him. What I real-
ly came for to-day was to tell you I am
going down to Ivors to-morrow, and
to make you promise to come to my
birthday ball next month.”
1 “But, “my dear child, it is so
on --
“ don’t care how lonrr it is. I
don’t care if it is a hundred years
since you were last at a ball. I intend
you shall come to . mine. Now-s-do
you hear ?-I insist. You owe me
some reparation, so you can’t refuse.
Good-by, Den; 1 must run away; but
say ‘ Yes’ before I go.”
f Yes," he said, unable to resist.
g . an t 3 It 1 I
In Jocelyne’s pretty boudoir that
night high argument was being held.
Lord Mayfair, hot and irritated, was
standing opposite his grand-daughter,
with uplifted ringer, making a vain
effort to induce her to listen to reason;
while she, in her pale-green ball dress
and water-lilies, and with her lips and
e cs alike mntiiioiis, was plainly and
shamefully rebellious. .
“I confess I cannot understand
you,” said the Earl, plaintively.
“Last week you showed yourself
thor-oughly gracious to him and to-
night you would not spare
one dance. It ls--it must be-mere
him even-
caprice. He complained to me bitter.
ly about it.” “
“ I hate tell-tales,”.a returned Joce-
lyne, frowning. “ Is he afraid of me,
that he’ must employ, a go-between ?
Last week I looked upon him merely
as a friend, and could ahord to be civil.
He has put it out of my power to do so
any longer. ” ' '
“ Now, what objection can you pose
sibly have to Blunden ? ” asked her
randfather, in despair. “ You re-
nose was not in the middle of his face,
-an absurd remark that could be ap-
nowledged by all to be a re marlmbly
toWn.”‘
“ life isn’t half so handsome as Don,"
replied J ocelyne, provokingly. c '
The Earl turned upon her angrily.
. “Itis always oon,” he said. “ I am
sick of the name. One would think it
was Mr. Blackwood you wanted v to
marry.”
There was dead silence. A cold hand
seemed to have suddenly ‘clutched at
the girl’s heart. These few idle words
had done for her what two long years
had failed to do. She stood .-for a full
minute as if turned to stone. Did she
love him ‘I’ Slowly her color faded un-
til cheeks and brow and lips were white
as snow. Then she turned and sought
her own room. Throwing herself,
dressed as she was, upon her bed, she
fought a lon battle with‘ her heart
through all t at night season, until,
as the morning dawned, she knew.
went down to Ivors without seeing
Blackwood again, to spend each quiet
hour in troubledthought. She was
now assured of her own feelings; but
could she answer for him ? "He was al-
ways so cold, so inditferent; no little
word that she could remember had
ever escaped him; and iete . She al-
ternated between fear and hope, one
ous gleam of certainty.
As the morning of her birthday broke
pour in, and no mark, no token of
affection came from him, her hopes
fell dead. And when at night she
stood robed in white satin, beside her
grandfather to receive her gu0StS:
there was a sickening dread within her
that at the last the one she loved
Elied to any one. ‘But Blunden is ao- ’
The next day she left London and .
moment possessed with doubt, the‘
next sustained by some iitfulraptul‘-<
used Nugent because, you said, his ‘
handsome fellow,"-the handsomest in I‘
to let the many gifts from every side ‘I ‘