guised pleasure. Hugh, watching her, said to himself, "Pope was right. Every woman is at heart a rake." Ella, watching Hugh, said in turn to herself, "That man's heart is harder than the nether mill-stone. He is simply a male flirt," and returned to her prince with satisfaction. Poor Prince Philip, who knew that he had no chance with the pure, proud, beautiful English girl and that morganatic marriages were beneath the dignity of an English lady, literally gave himself up to the intoxication of the moment, and plucked up spirit to revolt against his uncle's tyranny and to silence his cousin of Katzenellenbogen's sneers. Picnics, boating parties, excursions to neighbouring places of interest filled out their time. Pleasure seemed to be the order of the day, and they lived in a whirl. Mrs.

Dobree was the only sober one amongst them. She was drinking the waters, and was obliged to keep comparatively quiet. Mr. Hamilton played propriety. He watched Lesbia with anxiqus eyes. How was it all to end? Did she mean to marry Mr. Dalrymple? Did he mean to marry her? What did Captain Hugh

mean? And what about Ella? As for Frank, the unhappy young man was well nigh distracted.

CHAPTER XIX.

ADLERSHORST.

Do you know the Adlershorst?

Al

most every Englishman given to travel does. That hunting-schloss of the Grand Duke of Groschenheim, perched, as it were, on the summit of a precipice, whence one looks dizzily down into space on the one side, and over rolling miles of magnificent woods on the other? Have you stood in those bare rooms with slippery floors, where the sofas, the looking-glass frames, the chandeliers, the chairs are all made of buckhorn and green velvet, as becomes a forest chateau ? where huge antlers, suspended above the doorways, and hung around the hall, each with its parchment pedigree attached, tell

that the Grand Dukes of Groschenheim have ever been a sporting race, loving the merry greenwood and the huntsman's forest craft? If you have so stood, you will understand why Lesbia became suddenly silent, and, gazing with all her eyes at the marvellous beauty of the scene, ceased to prattle.

They had come, a large party, through the already yellowing woods, the ladies on donkeys, the men on foot, to watch the sunset from the crags of Adlershorst. Hugh, walking by Ella, had now and then cast a glance behind him at Mr. Hamilton, who, no longer used to such pedestrian expeditions, had asked Frank to give him an arm, and again had looked ahead to where Stephen Dalrymple's powerful figure strode along by Lesbia's side with easy steps, threatening soon to out-distance them all.

"Poor Mr. Hamilton!" said Ella, notic

ing her companion's glances.

"Shall we

stop a minute Hugh, and see if we can persuade him to take a seat on my donkey? I am longing to get off, and walk through these lovely woods."

They stopped, and Mr. Hamilton made no difficulty about accepting Ella's vacated saddle. The toilsome path of duty which he had elected to follow caused him anxiously to accompany the young people in all their excursions, and the fact that Lesbia and her companion were now out of sight made him both irritable and eager to push on.

The yellow sunlight came gleaming through the branches, and bathed Lesbia's lovely face in its mellow light. When her companion was not looking at her she shut her eyes, as though the beauty and the bliss were almost too much for