know his besetting sin--irresolution. A child might sway
him, either for good or ill. The very best thing that could happen to Val
would be his marriage with Anne. She is sensible and judicious; and I
think Val could not fail to keep straight under her influence. If Dr.
Ashton could only be brought to see the matter in this light!"

"Can he not?"

"He thinks--and I don't say he has not reason--that Val should show
some proof of stability before his marriage, instead of waiting until
after it. The doctor has not gone to the extent of parting them, or of
suspending the engagement; but he is prepared to be strict and exacting
as to Mr. Val's line of conduct; and I fancy the suspicion that it would
be so has kept Val away from Calne."

"What will be done?"

"I hardly know. Val does not make a confidant of me, and I can't get to
the bottom of how he is situated. Debts I am sure he has; but whether--"

"Val always had plenty of those," interrupted Maude.

"True. When my father died, three parts of Val's inheritance went to pay
off debts nobody knew he had contracted. The worst is, he glides into
these difficulties unwittingly, led and swayed by others. We don't say
Elster's sin, or Elster's crimes; we say Elster's folly. I don't believe
Val ever in his life did a bad thing of deliberate intention. Designing
people get hold of him--fast fellows who are going headlong down-hill
themselves--and Val, unable to say 'No,' is drawn here and drawn there,
and tumbles with them into a quagmire, and perhaps has to pay his
friends' costs, as well as his own, before he can get out of it. Do you
believe in luck, Maude?"

"In luck?" answered Maude, raising her eyes at the abrupt question. "I
don't know."

"I believe in it. I believe that some are born under a lucky star, and
others under an unlucky one. Val is one of the latter. He is always
unlucky. Set him up, and down he comes again. I don't think I ever knew
Val lucky in my life. Look at his nearly blowing his arm off that time in
Scotland! You will laugh at me, I dare say; but a thought crosses me at
odd moments that his ill-luck will prevail still, in the matter of Miss
Ashton. Not if I can help it, however; I'll do my best, for Anne's sake."

"You seem to think very much of her yourself," cried Lady Maude, her
cheeks crimsoning with an angry flush.

"I do--as Val's future wife. I love Anne Ashton better than any one
else in the world. We all loved her. So would you if you