Sir Hugh came up and began talking to Freda; he was so kind and so natural even in his loudness, that Freda felt as if she would rather trust him with every secret of her heart, than the polished worldling who had just left her.

‘And yet, perhaps,’ she thought, ’Gladys has really deceived me, and he is innocent; still, better Gladys than that statue-like Miss Nugent.’

Freda thought the night would never end; she exerted herself to talk and dance, because every one came to ask what was the matter with her, and by the time they went to supper, she was as flushed as she had previously been pale.  Lord Nugent was particularly attentive to her, and evidently admired her very much; bitterly she thought that she could gain, unsought, the civilities of one man, whilst she was but too conscious that the one she cared the most for in the world, was devoting himself almost exclusively to the Nugents.  But he was unworthy of the heart of any right-minded woman, so she would tear him from hers, and again make her father her first care.

But those despicable Nugents had got possession of him also.  He was seated next to Lady Mary at supper, her profile and diamonds were directed at him, and she looked almost as young, and quite as handsome as her daughter.  Alas! and again alas! poor Freda!

However, all things come to an end, and an heiress’s twenty-first birthday amongst them.  Miss Nugent’s did not finish till three o’clock in the morning, at which hour, Mr and Miss Gwynne and Colonel Vaughan were driving home from the festivities at Pentre.  The gentlemen were keeping up a rather lively conversation on the events of the evening, and the lady was sustaining a very strong conflict with her own pride.

As the carriage rolled past a certain large oak tree in the Park, Freda suddenly remembered Rowland Prothero.  About a twelvemonth ago she had left him beneath that oak, humbled and deeply pained, doubtless, by her haughty words.  Now she was similarly pained and humbled, and she was, for the first time, aware of the shock her proud refusal of his love must have been to him.  Had she not been weak enough to yield her heart unasked, and was it not almost thrown back into her own bosom?  She, who had believed herself above the silly romance of her sex, to have sunk below even Miss Nugent.  But she would rouse herself from such a mania, and show Colonel Vaughan how thoroughly she despised him.

She did rouse herself, and the first words she heard were,—­

‘Yes, certainly, very handsome, mother and daughter,’ from Colonel Vaughan’s lips.

‘And which is to be the happy object of your notice, Colonel Vaughan?’ she asked, suddenly joining in the conversation.  ’I heard grand discussions on the subject on all sides.’

‘Really,’ replied the colonel, somewhat surprised by the sudden question, ‘I did not know I was of so much importance.’

‘What! you, about whom every one is speculating.’