"My dear Eveline," said Lady Gower, a fortnight after this warning, "I told you to take care of your heart, and you said you were quite safe, but you ought to take care of poor Gerald Staunton's too. You are not sufficiently distant with him. I really should blame you if he has the presumption to fall in love with you, absurd and preposterous as it would be. We cannot do without these creatures, and ye they are a world of trouble to us; silly moths fluttering around dangerous candles. I think I overheard you saying you wished he could go to Darlington Castle to see some view or another, but there is one comfort, Darlington will not invite him."
Eveline heard this warning with a little feeling of shame, but not altogether without pleasure. The idea that Gerald Staunton was falling in love with her mos imprudently and hopelessly, was far more romantic and interesting to her, than John Derrick's proposal to make an exchange between rank and money; it was far more like books, and unfortunately Eveline nothing of life but from books, and neither her querulous mother nor her fashionable aunt tried to guide her hear or judgment in any other but the most worldly way.
There was an additional glow on Lady Eveline's cheek when Gerald again sat beside her and
