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196 . WILD MARGARET.
Ferdinand is blind to Miss Leslie’s loveliness, and that it is
only revealed to you and Florence?”’
**What do you mean?” asked the signora.
‘*What doI mean? Why, my dear Lucille, aren’t you
afraid that, to speak plainly, Ferdinand may—fall in love
with Miss Leslie?’
The old princess looked at her for a moment with a
mild surprise, then she drew her slight figure up to its full
height and smiled with placid hauteur.
‘*Perdinand will not fall in love with Miss Leslie,’ she
said, with an air of calm conviction.
‘*Oh,”’ said the countess, dryly. ‘‘Does he wear an
amulet warranted to protect him from such eyes as hers,
such beauty as hers?”
‘*Yes,” said the mother. ‘‘ Ferdinand wears such an
amulet. It is the consciousness of his rank and all its du-
ties and responsibilities. Miss Leslie is a most charming
‘girl, and Florence and I are attached to her; but Ferdi-
nand——” she paused and smiled. ‘‘I know Ferdinand
very well, I think, my dear, so well, that if you were to
hint that he was likely to fall in love with one of the maid-
servants I should be as little alarmed.”’
The countess looked at her with a strange smile, then.
_ glanced at the prince and Margaret.
‘My dear Lucille, she said, ‘‘I beg your pardon. Of
course, you are quite right, and there is no danger. There
has never been an instance of one of our rank marrying
beneath him, has there?” and she laughed ironically.
The signora smiled and shook her head. | .
‘My dear,” she said, ‘‘there isn’t a prouder man 1D
Italy than Ferdinand. Iam not at all uneasy.”
CHAPTER XXII.
I po not think I have at any time held up Lord Blair —
Leyton as an example to youth, and I am less likely than
ever to do so now, now that he has reached an epoch in
his life when, like a vessel without a rudder, he drifts to
_and fro on life’s troubled sea, heedless of his course, and
perilously near the rocks of utter ruin and destruction.
But at any rate, I can claim one quality for our hero—he
was thorough. .
A wilder man than Blair, before he fell in love with
_ Margaret, it would ‘be difficult to imagine; it would be
harder to find a better one, or one with better intentions, —
than he was during his short married life; and, alas, no
wilder and more reckless being existed than poor Blair,
after Margaret’s supposed death,
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