aid one morning, when the fortnight was nearly at an
end, "your father ought to know all this. I should feel that I had
betrayed him were I to go away leaving him in ignorance."

"You do not mean to say that you will tell?" said the girl, horrified
at the idea of such treachery.

"I wish that I could induce you to do so. Every day that he is kept
in the dark is an injury to you."

"I am doing nothing. What harm can come? It is not as though I were
seeing him every day."

"This harm will come; your father of course will know that you became
engaged to Mr. Tregear in Italy, and that a fact so important to him
has been kept back from him."

"If there is anything in that, the evil has been done already. Of
course poor mamma did mean to tell him."

"She cannot tell him now, and therefore you ought to do what she
would have done."

"I cannot break my promise to him." "Him" always meant Mr. Tregear.
"I have told him that I would not do so till I had his consent, and I
will not."

This was very dreadful to Mrs. Finn, and yet she was most unwilling
to take upon herself the part of a stern elder, and declare that
under the circumstances she must tell the tale. The story had been
told to her under the supposition that she was not a stern elder,
that she was regarded as the special friend of the dear mother who
was gone, that she might be trusted to assist against the terrible
weight of parental authority. She could not endure to be regarded at
once as a traitor by this young friend who had sweetly inherited the
affection with which the Duchess had regarded her. And yet if she
were to be silent how could she forgive herself? "The Duke certainly
ought to know at once," said she, repeating her words merely that she
might gain some time for thinking, and pluck up courage to declare
her purpose, should she resolve on betraying the secret.

"If you tell him now, I will never forgive you," said Lady Mary.

"I am bound in honour to see that your father knows a thing which is
of such vital importance to him and to you. Having heard all this
I have no right to keep it from him. If Mr. Tregear really loves
you"--Lady Mary smiled at the doubt implied by this suggestion--"he
ought to feel that for your sake there should be no secret from your
father." Then she paused a moment to think. "Will you let me see Mr.
Tregear myself, and talk to him about it?"

To this Lady Mary at first demurred, but when she found that in no
other way