"She ought to be surrounded by everything that is fairest and most beautiful on earth," she declared, "for there is no one like her."
"You are fond of her?" he said.
She forgot all her shyness, and raised her blue eyes to his.
"Fond of her? I love her better than any one on earth--except perhaps, my mother. I could never have dreamed of any one so fair, so bewitching, so kind as the duchess."
"And she seems attached to you," he said, earnestly.
"She is very good to me--she is goodness itself;" and the blue eyes, with their depth of poetry and passion, first gleamed with light, and then filled with tears.
"We must be friends," said Lord Arleigh, "for I, too, love the duchess. She has been like a sister to me ever since I can remember;" and he drew nearer to the beautiful girl as he spoke. "Will you include me among your friends?" he continued. "This is not the first time that I have seen you. I stood watching you yesterday; you were among the roses, and I was in the morning-room. I thought then, and I have thought ever since, that I would give anything to be included among your friends."
His handsome face flushed as he spoke, his whole soul was in his eyes.
"Will you look upon me as one of your friends?" he repeated, and his voice was full of softest music. He saw that even her white brow grew crimson.
"A friend of mine, my lord?" she exclaimed. "How can I? Surely you know I am not of your rank--I am not one of the class from which you select your friends."