"Which you always declare you despise, and which you know I detest."
"Quite true; think it unspoken and absolve me."
"I do; but if we are to have what you used to call a 'business talk,' we must have it at once. In half an hour Lord and Lady Hetherington and the luncheon will arrive simultaneously, and our chance is at an end. And you did not come from London, I suppose, to discuss tenant right, or to listen to Lady Hetherington's diatribes against servants?"
"No, indeed; with all deference to them, I came to see you, and you alone, to ask your advice, and to take it, which is quite a different thing, as I have done before in momentous periods of my life."
"And this is a momentous period?"
"Undoubtedly, as much, if not more so, than any."
Had she any notion of what was coming? Her pale face grew paler; she pushed back her chesnut hair, and her large eyes were fixed on him in grave attention.
"You alone of any one in the world, man or woman, know the exact story of my first love. You knew my confidence and trust, you knew how they were abused. You saw how I suffered at the time, and you cannot be ignorant of what is absolute fact; that to your advice and encouragement I owe not merely recovery from that wretched state, but the position to which I have since attained!"
"Well?"
"That first love fell dead; you know when! Ambition, the passion that supplied its place, was sufficient for a time to absorb all my thoughts, hopes, and energies. But, to a certain extent it has been gratified, and it suffices me no longer. My heart wants some one to love, and turns to one to whom it owes gratitude, but whom it would sooner meet with a warmer feeling. Are you not well, Lady Caroline?"
"Quite well, thanks, and—and interested. Pray go on!"
"To go on is difficult. It is so horrible in a man to have to say that he sees he has awakened interest in a woman, that she shows all unknowingly to herself, but still sufficiently palpable, that he is the one person in the world to her, that she rejoices in his presence, and grieves at his absence; worst of all that all this is pointed out to him by other people"
Lady Caroline's cheeks flushed as she echoed the words, "Pointed out to him by other people!"
"Exactly. That's the worst of it. However, all this being so, and my feelings such as I have described, I presume I shouldn't be repeating my former error, inviting a repetition of my previous fate, in asking her to be my wife?"
"I—I should think not." The flush still in her cheeks. "Do I know the lady?"
"Do you know her? No one knows her so well! Ah, Lady Caroline, kindest and dearest of friends, why should I keep you longer in suspense? It is Maud Creswell!"
Her face blanched in an instant. Her grasp tightened rigidly over the arm of the chair on which it lay, but she gave no other sign of emotion. Even her voice, though hollow and metallic, never shook as she repeated the name, "Maud Creswell!"
"Yes. Maud Creswell! You are surprised, I see, but I don't think you will blame me for my choice! She is eminently ladylike, and clever, and nice, and "
"I don't think you could possibly what is it, Thomas?"
"Luncheon, my lady."
"Very well. I must get you to go in to luncheon without me, Mr. Joyce; you will find Lord and Lady Hetherington in the dining-room, and I will come down directly. We will resume our talk afterwards."
And she left the room, and walked swiflly and not too steadily up the hall towards the staircase.
A New Religion.
A new religion has within the last few years been founded in Persia, which seems destined to exercise a powerful antagonism to Mohammedanism. Amongst the doctrines of the Bâbys, as these new sectaries are called, none are more likely to attract attention than those which are intended to effect a radical change in the condition of women in the East. Bâbysm was founded in 1843 at Shiraz by Mirza-Ali-Mohammed, a young man of nineteen years of age, who gave out that he was the genuine successor of Ali, the true prophet of Iran. He was endowed with singular beauty of form and features; with an eloquence which seemed inspired; and with great earnestness of purpose. The example of Mohammed induced him to prepare himself for his mission by an assiduous study of the ancient systems of religion, and he listened also to the teachings of Protestant missionaries, of orthodox Jews, and of followers of the Kabbala. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and visited the tomb of the Prophet; yet in the very midst of the holy city his faith
