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on this bed of roses, for I am afraid it has unfitted me for another couch."

"Well, it certainly is not a very bracing atmosphere that we live in here. It is floating down the stream, instead of pulling against it."

"And yet," she said, "what fault can be found with such an existence as Lady Clara's? How innocent it is! how affectionate she is! Loving and beloved, giving pleasure and receiving it. I think it is a delightful sight to see her, so beautiful herself, in the midst of beauty of every kind. By changing a single word, one could apply to her that pretty French line,

"Et rose elle a vécu, comme vivent les roses."

"True," he answered, with one of his slow smiles, "but was she sent into the world to live the life of a rose, or to bear her part in the great battle-field of life? Her existence always seems to me too much like Eve's in Paradise Eve before not after the Fall.”

Gertrude pulled off all the pink petals of one of the flowers in her hand and showed him the green calyx which formed a sort of cross. "Ay!" he exclaimed, "it will be found in the end, but ought it not to have been taken up sooner?"

"I should like the battle-field of life," she said, "but to sit still is what I dread."

"We must each of us fight at our post," he answered. "The order of the day is all that concerns us. Do you go early to-morrow?"

"Not very early," she replied, with a faltering voice.

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"I wanted to ask you if on Sunday I might hear mass at the chapel at Lifford Grange, it is nearer than Stonehouseleigh, and I should be glad to see Father Lifford at the same time." Her eyes flashed with a joy that she could not disguise, and she assented briefly, but in a manner that showed the delight she felt.

"Mamma will see you, perhaps, if she is pretty

well."

"Would she? I should be so glad to know her." "She never receives strangers, but

"But you think she would see me?"

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"I have read to her your books; and you have been so kind to me."

"Kind!" he said with a smile.

"Yes; you carried me here the I am sure she will wish to thank

Spanish?"

"Yes."

"That will do, it is all right,"

day of my accident. you. Can you speak

and with a move

ment of irresistible delight she threw up her nosegay into the air, and caught it back again as it fell. He looked a little thoughtful, and did not talk to her any more that evening, but sat on in the same place. Maurice had been asked to sing a new romance which Mrs. Crofton had just received from Paris, the words

by Victor Hugo; it was called the "Fou de Tolède." He complied: when he came to the following stanza his eyes fixed themselves on Gertrude:

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She did not observe his emotion, but the music of

this song
seemed to suit her thoughts also.

which was wild like a dream of passion

CHAPTER XIV.

"Not chance of birth or place has made us friends,

Being of different tongues and nations,

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But the endeavour for the self-same ends,

With the same hopes, and fears, and aspirations."

SHAKESPEARE.

IN her mother's arms at her mother's feet Gertrude spent the next few days. That dark room had grown very dear to her. Her feelings were now more in unison with its aspect. The picture of the Duke of Gandia seemed to look approvingly upon her, as by every little exertion in her power she endeavoured to contribute to her mother's comfort. She told her again and again all the particulars of her stay at Audley Park, amused her with descriptions of the people she had seen, made her smile sometimes and sigh at others, and understood her smiles but not her sighs. Then she talked to her of Adrien, gave a minute account of his looks, of his manner, repeated every word he had said to her, and announced that he would come to Lifford Grange on the following Sunday.

"You must tell Father Lifford, love. I wonder what your father would feel about it?"

"About what, Mamma? About M. d'Arberg's

coming to church? You know the chapel is open to every one on Sunday."

"Yes, dearest, but if he comes I think you must ask him to have some luncheon."

66

"Yes, to be sure," Gertrude said, with her brightest smile, we must not let him starve, and then you must see him."

"O no, my dearest child, I cannot do that."

"Oh, you must, dearest Mamma, it will do you a world of good. How I wish I had taken to managing you long ago. You would be so much better by this time. I am beginning to manage Father Lifford too. By going a little lame I make him do whatever I like now."

"O but Gertrude, that is very naughty."

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Here

"No, no, I don't pretend to limp, I only show it off. Oh, we could be so happy here if she stopped, and a dark cloud passed over her face. In a moment she said, "Lady Clara would come and if you liked, Mamma."

see you

Mrs. Lifford became agitated, "My child, don't let her come. I could not bear it. I am very very grateful to her for her kindness to you, but indeed I cannot see her. I can see nobody. I am not fit for it."

"Not Lady Clara then, not anybody but M. d'Arberg. He will talk Spanish to you, and you will understand

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