‘Perhaps, but for that delay, we might both have been shot,’ said Louis.  ‘No, indeed; I could not wonder at your prizing it so much.’

‘I little thought that would be the end of it,’ said Isabel.  ’I am glad you know its history, so that I may have some excuse;’ and she tried to smile, but she blushed deeply as she dried her eyes.

‘Excuse? more than excuse!’ said Louis, remembering his fears that it would be thrown away upon her.  ‘I know—­’

‘He has told you!’ cried Isabel, starting with bashful eagerness.

‘He has told me what I understand now,’ said Louis, coming near in a glow of grateful delight.  ’Oh, I am so glad you appreciate him.  Thank you.’

‘You are inferring too much,’ said Isabel, turning away in confusion.

‘Don’t you mean it!’ exclaimed Louis.  ‘I thought—­’

‘We must not mistake each other,’ said Isabel, recovering her self-possession.  ’Nothing amounting to what you mean ever passed, except a few words the last evening, and I may have dwelt on them more than I ought,’ faltered she, with averted head.

‘Not more than he has done, I feel certain,’ said Louis; ’I see it all!  Dear old Jem!  There’s no such fellow in existence.’  But here perceiving that he was going too far, he added, almost timidly, ’I beg your pardon.’

‘You have no occasion,’ she said, smiling in the midst of her blushes.  ’I feared I had said what I ought not.  I little expected such kind sympathy.’

She hastily left him, and Lady Conway soon after found him so full of bright, half-veiled satisfaction, that she held herself in readiness for a confession from one or both every minute, and, now that the panic was over, gave great credit to the Red Republicans for having served her so effectually, and forgave the young people for having been so provoking in their coolness in the time of danger, since it proved how well they were suited to each other.  She greatly enjoyed the universally-implied conviction with regard to the handsome young pair.  Nor did they struggle against it; neither of them made any secret of their admiration for the conduct of the other, and the scrupulous appellations of Miss Conway and Lord Fitzjocelyn were discarded for more cousinly titles.

The young hero fell somewhat in his aunt’s favour when he was missing at the traveller’s early breakfast, although Delaford reported him much better and gone out.  ’What if he should be late for the train?- -what if he should be taken up by the police?’ Virginia scolded her sister for not being equally restless, and had almost hunted the Captain into going in search of him; when at last, ten minutes before the moment of departure, in he came, white, lame, and breathless, but his eyes dancing with glee, and his lips archly grave, as he dropped something into Isabel’s lap.

‘Her bracelet!’ exclaimed Virginia, as Isabel looked up with swimming eyes, unable to speak.  ‘Where did you find it?’