KYRA'S FATE.

faltered and seemed paralysed; if she were singing there was a thickening in her throat, and the music was frozen on her lips.

She knew nothing of love or its near of kin, hate-she was just an exquisite flower of nature budding into womanhoodand she could not analyse the feeling; but she knew it was there.

She was thinking of him now-perhaps because she heard his voice, soft and low and disagreeably smooth in a manand she made a little impatient gesture as if to thrust him from her mind, and rose to re-enter the house.

But, as she did so, she heard him speak her name. Instinctively she paused for a moment, then as instinctively was moving away; but she caught the full sentence, and its import was so terrible that she stopped and stood as if spellbound; indeed, she was powerless to move.

"Yes; no doubt we're thinking of the same thing," he said, slowly, carefully, and with a deliberate heartlessness that chilled her. “She will marry-she is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen: she is divine in form and face. She will marry: it is inevitable. But there is only one man she must marry-me."

Kyra's arms hung limply at her side, her breath came painfully, and her glorious eyes distended as the stag's distend when he first hears the bay of the dogs.

James Froyte cleared his throat nervously and made some response, but in so low and hushed a voice that she could not hear it. Half unconsciously she slid nearer the open window of the room in which the two men were talking.

"Yes, I know. For some reason or other she does not like me," said Stracey, in a matter-of-fact tone. "She showed it at our first meeting, she has shown it every time we have been alone together. I'm sorry, of course, but-I must overcome that. I have overcome greater obstacles."

She knew the cynical curve of the thin lips that accompanied this speech.

"It will not be the first time that a girl has married a man whom she disliked at the beginning of their acquaintance. You shake your head." He laughed the soft, smooth laugh which always jarred upon the girl. "You will find that you are wrong and that I am right. I am not afraid. Give me time and opportunity.”

"Time!" murmured James Froyte, huskily.

"Oh, I know," assented Stracey. He lit a cigarette, and "You smoked for a moment or two before he went on.

think I shall not have much, that we shall not be able to keep her secluded and to ourselves much longer? This fool of a doctor-it's a pity you called him in, but I suppose there was no help for it?

"No, no!" responded James Froyte, thickly. "If—if anything had happened to her-"

"I know it would have been said that she had been neglected, perhaps that dread had been in your mind."

Kyra heard the father move suddenly, as if with fear.

"But this doctor will insist upon her going into society; and he will not be baulked. Did you see the man's face? We shall have to deal carefully with him; and follow his advice for a time. It's a risk! By Heaven, there are few men who could look upon her without falling in love with her: there is a charm about her: is it the strain of Indian blood? We must humour him for a time, and as soon as possible take her away. Even this place is not sufficiently out of the world. We must find one still more suitable. We must have her to ourselves. Bah! you look as if I were proposing murder." He laughed contemptuously, as James Froyte started and moved so suddenly that his chair struck against the wall. "There are other and more pleasant ways. The girl knows nothing of the world; she will find that every woman is to be won in time-leave it to me. And, for Heaven's sake, don't continue to look as if you had committed-or were going to commit a crime! There may be no need of-of strong measures. I may induce her to change her feelings towards me, I may win her love-she is not the first woman- But no matter! I mean to marry her; I meant it from the first, the moment I knew the truth. You'd better go and see if she is awake."

Kyra started as if from a spell. A shudder ran through her, and she seemed as if she were about to fall. Then suddenly a change came over her. She drew herself as erect as an arrow, she pressed her tightly clenched hands against her bosom, which heaved with the passionate indignation that flashed from the wonderful eyes, and the clear ivory of her face was flushed with the hot blood that throbbed in her veins. She was transformed from a weak and listless girl to a woman with a soul in revolt against tyranny and outrage: it was no longer the hunted stag, but a young lioness at bay: say, rather, an English girl inspired by despair to a supreme effort of resistance.

She glided to the window of the boudoir and sank on to the couch; her bosom was still heaving, her breath coming pain

fully; but, as the door opened, she stilled the throbbing of her heart and turned with a smile.

"Is that you, Mr. Froyte?" she said. "Is Stracey in the house? I wonder whether he would go for a walk with me?" Stracey was in the hall, and, as his father turned with surprise on his countenance, he smiled with an air of satisfaction and confidence.

"It's just what I was going to propose," he said, coming into the room and bending over her. 66 Are you rested after your sleep, Kyra?"

She repressed the shudder that threatened her, and looked up at him with a smile the first she had ever vouchsafed him.

"Oh, yes! And I am dying for a walk. Give me five minutes-only five minutes."

As she went by them and out of the room, Stracey put up his hand and smilingly stroked his moustache.

CHAPTER II.

ONE evening, three weeks later, a young fellow alighted from a dog-cart at Holmby Hall. It is one of the seats of the great Ashleigh family, and by no means the least important. The butler received him with stately but smiling dignity, handed his modest portmanteau to a servant, and, in response to the young man's genial, "Well, Williams: all right, I hope?" responded with respectful amiability:

Thank you kindly, Mr. Lance. I hope I see you the

same?"

"Fit as a fiddle, thanks, Williams," said Lance le Breton, in the frank and light-hearted way which caused most persons to treat him as a boy, though he had reached manhood two or three years since. "The earl and all of them well, I hope?"

"His lordship is pretty well, sir, barring a touch of the gout-he is in his room at present. Lord Arthur is about as usual, sir; he's in his room, too. Lady May is quite well. Her ladyship was expecting you by the earlier train; she is about the grounds somewhere, I think, sir."

Lance le Breton nodded.

"I lost the other train by a minute." He generally lost his train, and usually by more than a minute. I'll go straight to my room; there is only just time to dress, isn't there?"

"Yes, sir-the blue room," said the butler, glancing at the

clock. "Can I send anything up to you, Mr. Lance; a glass of sherry?"

Lance declined, with a laugh.

"No, thanks, Williams; I'm as hungry as a hunter already."

A footman took his coat and hat, and looked after him admiringly, as he went up the great staircase with a light step, two stairs at a time.

"One of the best, Mr. Lance is, ain't he, Mr. Williams?" he said; and Williams nodded, with grave and emphatic as

sent.

"One of the best, Joseph!"

Lance had reached the head of the corridor which ran round the hall, when a door was flung open and a young girl rushed out.

She was sixteen; a pretty girl with bonny hair and eyes and a mouth that was stretched with an eager smile of wel

come.

"Is that you, Lance!" she cried. "At last! Of course you lost your train! And of course I was idiot enough to think you'd catch it, and went down to meet you.

66

"Hallo, May!" he cried, in response, catching her by both hands and looking at her affectionately and with a faint surprise in his frank, laughing eyes. By George, how you've grown! And all in-what is it-five, six months! Why, you're almost big enough to put your hair up and let yourahem!-skirts down!"

Lady May laughed and blushed as she wrung his strong hands and looked into his face with girlish admiration and affection.

"Yes, I am grown, aren't I? I knew you'd say that the first moment you saw me. How well you're looking, Lance! Oh, I'm so glad you've come! There's been no one here, and it's been as dull as ditch-water."

"Thank you very much," he retorted. "Yes, I've come, May. I couldn't resist the temptation of seeing the old place-and you, May, once more, for the last time—perhaps for years."

"Then you're going away, Lance?" she said, with a sigh and a warmer pressure of his hands.

He nodded.

"Yes; my bark is on the shore, May, dear," he assented. "I've joined that Border Brigade, you know-I'll tell you all about it presently-and we may get our marching orders

any day. Indeed, I had the deuce's own trouble to obtain leave.

"I'm sorry!" she said, with sisterly regret.

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled down at her; for, though she had grown, he stood above her, for he was tall and sinewy and lithe as is the modern, young man who cultivates his muscles and keeps in training.

"There was no help for it, May. When a chap hasn't any money or brains-there's nothing for it but the colonies or the service. I got ploughed for Sandhurst, as you know; so there was only the Border Brigade. It's a rough billet; but it will do well enough, and I'm pretty certain it's as good as I deserve. But never mind me. Tell me about yourself. Keep up your cold baths and your swimming? Use those Indian clubs I gave you-I hope you do!-and stick to your rid. ing and your hockey!"

The girl nodded two or three times eagerly as she replied, laughingly:

Yes, Lance! Don't you see how much bigger I am round the chest? And I walk as much as Miss Barlow will let me. Poor, old dear! she has a hankering suspicion that cold baths, Indian clubs, and hockey are unlady-like; and I can't quite convince her that they're not, that it's the thing for women to be strong as well as wise,' though I quote you every time, Lance!"

She nodded, with a mischievous twinkle in her bright, brown eyes.

"That isn't very wise, anyway, May," he said, with a rueful smile. "I'm afraid Miss Barlow regards me as everything but a suitable mentor and friend. But, never mind, you stick to it, and you'll grow up a healthy, young woman and a model to your sex, my child-"

"I'm not your child; I wish I were, Lance," she said, smiling up at him.

He put his arm round her and gave her a brotherly kiss on her white, level brow, softly brushing the hair back to make

room.

"I wish you were-or my sister, May! But never mind, we're cousins, aren't we?"

"Yes; that's something," she said, with a little sigh. "You haven't seen father yet-nor Arthur, I suppose? Father's not very well, and you'll find him rather short and grumpy; but he'll really be glad to see you. As to Arthur" -she shrugged her shoulders and raised her brows-"he's got a new complaint-neurasthania or something of the sort