sufficient certainty to draw it all out of dear Lady Temple."

"She knows then?" said Rachel, breathlessly, but on her guard.

"Know? Yes, or she could hardly make such a brother of the Colonel.
In fact, I think it is a bit of treachery to us all to keep such an
affair concealed, don't you?" with a vivid flash out of the corner of
her eyes.

"Treachery not to post up a list of all one's--"

"One's conquests?" said Bessie, snatching the word out of her
brother's mouth. "Did you ever hear a more ingenious intimation of
the number one has to boast?"

"Only in character," calmly returned Alick.

"But do not laugh," said Rachel, who had by this time collected
herself; "if this is so, it must be far too sad and melancholy to be
laughed about."

"So it is," said Alick, with a tone of feeling. "It has been a
mournful business from the first, and I do not see how it is to end."

"Why, I suppose Colonel Colin is his own master now," said Bessie;
"and if he has no objection I do not see who else can make any."

"There are people in the world who are what Tennyson calls
'selfless,'" returned Alick.