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"I suppose they would have a pleasant house-party when you were here, my dear?" asked the lady "And of course you had the election What fun! And what a victory for you, Mr Stocks! I hear you beat the greatest landowner in the district"

Mr Stocks sirl flushed; she could not help it; and she hated Mr Stocks for his look

Her father spoke for the first ti man like, Mr Stocks? I hear he is very proud and foolish, the sort of over-educated type which the world has no use for"

"I like hientleentleh attitude "I suppose his father ht the land from some poor dear old aristocrat It is so sad to think of it And that sort of person is always over-educated, for you see they have not the spirit of the old families and they bury themselves in books" Mrs Andrews's father had kept a crockery shop, but his daughter had buried the memory

Mr Wishart frowned The lady had been asked down for her husband's sake, and he did not approve of this chatter about faree, caught his host's eye and left the dangerous subject untouched

"You said in your letters that they had been kind to you at this young man's place We must ask him down here to dinner, Alice Oh, and that re , but you young fellows had better try it"

Mr Stocks declined, said he had given it up Mr Thompson said, "Upon et the invitation He distrusted his proith a gun

"By the by, was he not at the picnic when you saved h, Stocks What should I have done without irl?"

"Yes, he was there In fact he ith Miss Alice at the moment she slipped"

He may not have meant it, but the imputation was clear, and it stirred one fiery expostulation "Oh, but he hadn't tian, and then feeling it ungracious towards that gentleman to make him share a possibility of herois fear which had never grown large enough for a suspicion, began to catch at her heart Was it possible that Lewis had held back?