their treasures with unfeigned interest.  Then Cecil’s very fluent descriptions of his experiences at school, his escapades, his torn garments, the occasional quarrels between the two boys, their appropriation of Francois, and their breakages—­all seemed to grow natural and pardonable when the young culprits ran to take her by the hand, and looked in her face with their innocent, trusting eyes.  On the whole, Miss Payne had never been so happy before, and Katherine forgot the shifting sands on which she was uprearing the graceful fabric of her tranquil life.

Sometimes they lured Bertie to spend a couple of days with them—­days which were always marked with a white stone.  What arguments and rambles Katherine enjoyed with him, and what goodly checks she drew to further his numerous undertakings!

De Burgh did not fail to carry out his threat of inspecting Sandbourne.  He found a valid excuse in a commission from Colonel Ormonde to advise Miss Liddell respecting a pair of ponies she had asked him to buy for her.

His visit was not altogether displeasing.  No woman is quite indifferent to a man who admires her in the hearty, wholesale way which De Burgh did not try to conceal.  Katherine was much too feminine not to like the incense of his devotion, especially when he kept it within certain limits.  She did not credit him with any deep feeling; but in spite of her strong conviction that he was attracted by her money, she recognized a certain sincerity in his liking for herself.  She enjoyed the idea of humbling his immense assurance, believing that any pain she might inflict would be short-lived, while he was amazed to find how swiftly the hours flew past when he allowed himself to spend a couple of days at Sandbourne—­surprised to feel so little of the contemptuous bitterness with which he generally regarded his fellow-creatures, and sometimes wondered if it were possible that something more simple than even his boyish self had come back to him.

Still, Bertie Payne was a more welcome guest than De Burgh, in spite of his unspoken but evident devotion.  With Bertie she could speak openly of matters on which she would not touch when with the other.  To Bertie she could talk of the mysteries of life, and argue on questions of belief.  She was touched by the eagerness he showed to convert her to his own extremely evangelical views, and though differing from him on many points, she deeply respected the sincerity of his convictions.

The degree of favor shown by her to “that psalm-singing Puritan,” as De Burgh termed him, was gall and wormwood to the latter, and indeed so irritated his spirit that he was driven to speak of the annoyance it caused him to Mrs. Ormonde, of whose discretion and judgment he had but a poor opinion.

Meantime no one heard or saw anything of Errington, who was supposed to be deep in the settlement of his father’s affairs, and winding up the estate, as the well-known house of Errington ceased to exist when the head and founder was no more.  Lady Alice had gone to stay with her brother and sister-in-law, who lived abroad, as it was impossible for her to enter into the gayeties of the season under existing circumstances, and the marriage was postponed until the end of July.