-"you seem to be taking no wine. No! shall we then join the ladies ? "

"And apologise to Miss Drummond for having committed the unpardonable offence of making her the subject of our discussions," said Sydney with a dark look.

Right," echoed Dr. Fletcher.

"Save your breath to cool your porridge, gentlemen," said Mr. Hamley with undisguised insolence. "Miss Drummond has need of no man's protection where I am!"

"You should have fulfilled your functions better just now," sneered Sydney; and Mr. Hamley, not to be outdone, turned his head just as he was leaving the room, and said, "Pass that on to the Colonel," as he swaggered through the hall.

In the drawing-room, because he was a little flushed with wine and a great deal excited by wrath, Sydney paid Dora the most marked attention, and seemed disposed to set everything at defiance his father, Mr. Hamley, the opinion of the world, and possibilities. It was by no means his best policy; but he was too angry to be politic. Besides, he had by nature a large share of that kind of feminine unreasonableness which cares more for the indulgence of its momentary

spite than the furtherance of its views by selfcontrol; and if he could strike to-day he did not look forward to being struck in return tomorrow. And because Colonel Lowe, too, was given up for the time to one of his haunting demons, and because he wanted to annoy Mr. Hamley and to punish him for his insolence in daring to hold his own against a gentleman's desire, he paid Dora as much attention in his way as did his son; and both together bewildered and somewhat disturbed that young lady, though they enchanted her too. Or rather, they would have enchanted her had she been left in peace. But Mr. Hamley had no intention of leaving her in peace. He drew a chair close to hers, and no stratagems nor inducements could tempt him to leave it. He mounted guard over her by his looks; a black and savage guard; and though he took no active hostile part against the compliments and pretty speeches which Sydney and his father showered like fireworks over her, yet he let them see plainly enough that they were not to his liking, and made her understand that what she accepted now she would have to pay for afterwards.

He spoke to her himself frequently, interrupting

the two men rudely, with a fierce and familiar manner of ownership that nearly maddened Sydney -a manner, too, strangely at variance with the artificial and lumbering formalities of his usual company habits.

Dora, who had not the mot d'énigme, was at a loss to understand its true meaning. She did her best to steer clear with her usual clever temporizing; but she failed. For every smile and blush and pretty acceptance of gallant words from father or son, Mr. Hamley spoke to her savagely; for every deprecating look to him and sweet-voiced endeavour to join him into the talk, Colonel Lowe laughed disagreeably, or Sydney pressed her foot beneath the chair with a savage pressure which it was wonderful Mr. Hamley did not see. Still, all this turmoil excited her vanity, and pleased it. To see herself the battle-ground, as it were, of these three men, was charming to her; and she felt quite like a little Queen of Beauty sitting on the dais and watching the tilters in the field below. She had never come out so prominently before; and the other ladies of the party looked on, and either wondered what it betokened, or resented the fuss being made with her, according to their own pretensions and private moods. As for poor Mrs.

Lowe, the whole thing was a mystery from beginning to end; and she had but one intelligible thought connected with it, that the Colonel was more than ordinarily disagreeable, and that she wished he would not lead Syd into mischief.

CHAPTER XIV.

PAYING THE BILL.

AT last the evening which seemed interminable

to more than one, for the dinner had not been a success, came to an end, and the guests melted away as they do, whether they melt by degrees or with a rush. "Sic transit" was Dora's plaintive sentiment as she wrapped herself in her ermines, and managed to make herself look even prettier than ever, though she put her unspoken lament into more homely language. Now, too, that the excitement was over, she was beginning to fear the consequences. It was the bad quarter of an hour when the bill was to be presented. To be sure, Mr. Hamley had always been good and kind to her, but that was because she had always been meek and obedient to him. She was a wise little girl in her generation, and knew that more than half the love given to us is because we please, not because we are