I know and feel bitterly the difference in our rank." "I--care--nothing--for rank," said the poor girl, sobbing through her tears.

He was generous, and she at any rate would not be less so.

No; at that moment, with her scanty seventeen years of experience, with her ignorance of all that the world had in it of grand and great, of high and rich, she did care nothing for rank.

That Owen Fitzgerald was a gentleman of good lineage, fit to mate with a lady, that she did know; for her mother, who was a proud woman, delighted to have him in her presence.

Beyond this she cared for none of the conventionalities of life.