CHAPTER XXV.
HUGH STANBURY SMOKES HIS PIPE.
[Illustration] Nora Rowley, when she went to bed, after her walk to Niddon Park in company with Hugh Stanbury, was full of wrath against him.

But she could not own her anger to herself, nor could she even confess to herself,--though she was breaking her heart,--that there really existed for her the slightest cause of grief.

But why had he been so stern to her?
Why had he gone out of his way to be uncivil to her?
He had called her "dainty," meaning to imply by the epithet that she was one of the butterflies of the day, caring for nothing but sunshine and an opportunity of fluttering her silly wings.

She had understood well what he meant.

Of course he was right to be cold to her if his heart was cold, but he need not have insulted her by his ill-concealed rebukes.