"You will be proud of me?
Of me, the poor little country girl who rode about the dales in a shabby habit and an old hat?
Stafford, Jessie was telling me that there is a very beautiful girl staying at the Villa at Brae Wood--one of the visitors.

Jessie said she was lovely, and that all the men-servants, and the maids, too, were talking about her.

She must be more beautiful than I am." "Which of the women do you mean ?" he said, indifferently, with the supreme indifference which the man who is madly in love feels for every other woman than the one of his heart.
"She is a fair girl, with blue eyes and the most wonderful hair; 'chestnut-red with gold in it,' as Jessie described it to me.

And she says that this girl wears the most beautiful diamonds--I am still quoting Jessie--and other precious stones, and that she is very 'high and mighty,' and more haughty than any of the other ladies.

Who is it ?" "I think she must mean Miss Falconer--Miss Maude Falconer," said Stafford, as indifferently as before, as he smoothed one of the silken tresses on her brow, and kissed it as it lay on his finger.