LOVERS' PARTING It might have been better for Nelly if her father had told her of those tentative advances to Captain Langrishe, for then her pride might have come to her aid.

As it was, she had nothing to go upon but those looks of his, and his manner to her when they had met at the houses of friends.

For they had met, and that was something the General did not know.

More, Nelly had engineered, with the cleverness of a girl in love, an acquaintance with Captain Langrishe's sister, a Mrs.Rooke, who lived in one of the Bayswater squares.

Mrs.Rooke was a vivacious little dark woman, with a cheek like a peach's rosy side.