It had a noble kind of wistfulness, and a serenity that entirely redeemed it.

Marion dated her own happiness from the time when Lali met her accident, for in the evening of that disastrous day she issued to Captain Hume Vidall a commission which he could never--wished never--to resign.

Since then she had been at her best,--we are all more or less selfish creatures,--and had grown gentler, curbing the delicate imperiousness of her nature, and frankly, and without the least pique, taken a secondary position of interest in the household, occasioned by Lali's popularity.

She looked Lali up and down with a glance in which many feelings met, and then, catching her hands warmly, she lifted them, put them on her own shoulders, and said: "My dear beautiful savage, you are fit and worthy to be Queen of England; and Frank, when he comes--" "Hush!" said the other dreamily, and put a finger on Marion's lips.

"I know what you are going to say, but I do not wish to hear it.