‘Your father told me that it was a fall down a steep bank,’ exclaimed Lady Conway.

’Exactly so; but I suppose he thought it for my credit to conceal that my trap consisted of a flight of stone stops, very solid and permanent, with the trifling exception of cement.’

‘If the truth were known,’ said James, ’I believe that a certain scamp of a boy was at the bottom of those steps.’

‘I’m the last person to deny it,’ said Louis, quietly, though not without rising colour, ’there was a scamp of a boy at the bottom of the steps, and very unpleasant he found it—­though not without the best consequences, and among them the present—­’ And he turned to Lady Conway with a pretty mixture of gracefulness and affection, enough to win the heart of any aunt.

Mrs. Mansell presently fell into raptures at the sight of the drawing materials, which must, she was sure, delight Isabel, but she was rather discomfited by the sight of the ’subject,’—­called it an odious creature, then good-humouredly laughed at herself, but would not sit down again, evidently wishing to escape from close quarters with such monsters.  Lady Conway likewise rose, and looked into the basin, exclaiming, in her turn, ’Ah!  I see you understand these things!  Yes, they are very interesting!  Virginia will be delighted; she has been begging me for an aquarium wherever we go.  You must tell her how to manage it.  Look, Isabel, would not she be in ecstasies?’

Miss Conway looked, but did not seem to partake in the admiration.  ‘I am perverse enough never to like what is the fashion,’ she said.

‘I tried to disgust Fitzjocelyn with his pets on that very ground,’ said James; ‘but their charms were too strong for him.’

‘Fashion is the very testimony to them,’ said Louis.  ’I think I could convince you.’

He would perhaps have produced his lovely serpula blossoms, but he was forced to pass on to his aunt and Mrs. Mansell, who had found something safer for their admiration, in the shape of a great Cornu ammonis in the garden.

‘He can throw himself into any pursuit,’ said James, as he paused at the door with Miss Conway; but suddenly becoming aware of the slimy entanglement round his hat, he exclaimed, ‘Absurd fellow!’ and pulled it off rather petulantly, adding, with a little constraint, ’Recovery does put people into mad spirits!  I fancy the honest folks here look on in amaze.’

Miss Conway gave a very pretty smile of sympathy and consolation, that shone like a sunbeam on her beautiful pensive features and dark, soft eyes.  Then she began to admire the view, as they stood on the turf, beside Captain Hannaford’s two small cannon, overlooking the water towards Bickleypool, with a purple hill rising behind it.  A yacht was sailing into the harbour, and James ran indoors to fetch a spy-glass, while Lady Conway seized the occasion of asking her nephew his tutor’s name.

Louis, who had fancied she must necessarily understand all his kindred, was glad to guard against shocks to Jem’s sensitive pride, and eagerly explained the disproportion between his birth and fortune, and his gallant efforts to relieve his grandmother from her burthens.  He was pleased to find that he had touched all his auditors, and to hear kind-hearted Mrs. Mansell repeat her special invitation to Mr. Frost Dynevor with double cordiality.