"A real live lord! A belted Earl if you please—whatever that may mean."
"Is this true, Joy?" said her mother beaming anxiously on her—if such a combination is understandable. Joy took her hand and stroked it lovingly:
"Do you think, Mother dear, that if there was such a thing I should leave you all this time in ignorance of it. It is only a jest made up by the stewardess who attended us on the Cryptic. Aunt Judy seems to have taken it all in; I think dear you had better ask her; she seems to know all about it—which is certainly more than I do."
"And how did this common woman dare to jest on such a subject. I don't think Judy that this would have happened had I been with her myself!"
"Oh my dear, get off that high horse. There's nothing to be alarmed about. The stewardess—who is a most worthy and attentive person"
"She is a dear!" interrupted Joy.
"—took such a fancy to Joy that she said there was only 'wan' in all the world who was worthy of her—a young nobleman to whom she had been foster-mother. It was certainly meant as a very true compliment, and I am bound to say that if the young man merits a hundredth part of all she said of him there's certainly no cause of offence in the mere mentioning his name."
"What is his name?" There was a shade of anxiety in the mother's voice.
"Lord Athlyne!"
"The Earl of Athlyne!" said Joy speaking without thought. Then she turned quickly away to hide her blushing.
"I—I—I really don't understand!" said Mrs. Ogilvie, looking around helplessly. Then with the shadow of a shade of annoyance in her voice she went on:
"I really think that in a serious matter of this kind I should have been consulted. But I seem not to count for
