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"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up

and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotaht of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as Dick put

it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancée of leford, and

Nell had co room dressed and ready to

start

Dick and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered

sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his

violin with hientle, protective air

of an elder brother "She does not look a bit nervous"

"But I a a little tremulously; "I am--just a

little bit!"

"And no wonder!" said Falconer proh; to know that everybody is regarding you critically But

she has nothing to be afraid of"

"Now, there I differ with you," said Dick argumentatively "If I were in

Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth

did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah,