"Can you keep a secret ?" said she abruptly.
"What!" said Sybil, looking at her with open-mouthed interest; "you don't mean--are you really--tell me, quick!" "Yes!" said Victoria relapsing into composure; "I am engaged!" "To Lord Dunbeg ?" Victoria nodded, and Sybil, whose nerves were strung to the highest pitch by excitement, flattery, fatigue, perplexity, and terror, burst into a paroxysm of laughter, that startled even the calm Miss Dare.
"Poor Lord Dunbeg! don't be hard on him, Victoria!" she gasped when at last she found breath; "do you really mean to pass the rest of your life in Ireland?
Oh, how much you will teach them!" "You forget, my dear," said Victoria, who had placidly enthroned herself on the foot of a bed, "that I am not a pauper.

I am told that Dunbeg Castle is a romantic summer residence, and in the dull season we shall of course go to London or somewhere.

I shall be civil to you when you come over.

Don't you think a coronet will look well on me ?" Sybil burst again into laughter so irrepressible and prolonged that it puzzled even poor Dunbeg, who was impatiently pacing the corridor outside.
It alarmed Madeleine, who suddenly opened the door.

Sybil recovered herself, and, her eyes streaming with tears, presented Victoria to her sister: "Madeleine, allow me to introduce you to the Countess Dunbeg!" But Mrs.Lee was much too anxious to feel any interest in Lady Dunbeg.
A sudden fear struck her that Sybil was going into hysterics because Victoria's engagement recalled her own disappointment.