d only,
Providence. She gave a growl, and continued.

"At any rate, he's gone; and you have now no pretext for refusing me
Maude. I shall take her, and bring her up, and you must make me a liberal
allowance for her."

"I shall not part with Maude," said Val, in quiet tones of decision.

"You can't refuse her to me, I say," rejoined the dowager, nodding her
head defiantly; "she's my own grandchild."

"And my child. The argument on this point years ago was unsatisfactory,
Lady Kirton; I do not feel disposed to renew it. Maude will remain in her
own home."

"You are a vile man!" cried the dowager, with an inflamed face. "Pass me
the wine."

He filled her glass, and left the decanter with her. She resumed.

"One day, when I was with Maude, in that last illness of hers in London,
when we couldn't find out what was the matter with her, poor dear, she
wrote you a letter; and I know what was in it, for I read it. You had
gone dancing off somewhere for a week."

"To the Isle of Wight, on your account," put in Lord Hartledon, quietly;
"on that unhappy business connected with your son who lives there. Well,
ma'am?"

"In that letter Maude said she wished me to have charge of her children,
if she died; and begged you to take notice that she said it," continued
the dowager. "Perhaps you'll say you never had that letter?"

"On the contrary, madam, I admit receiving it," he replied. "I daresay I
have it still. Most of Maude's letters lie in my desk undisturbed."

"And, admitting that, you refuse to act up to it?"

"Maude wrote in a moment of pique, when she was angry with me. But--"

"And I have no doubt she had good cause for anger!"

"She had great cause," was his answer, spoken with a strange sadness that
surprised both the dowager and Lady Hartledon. Thomas Carr was twirling
his wine-glass gently round on the white cloth, neither speaking nor
looking.

"Later, my wife fully retracted what she said in that letter," continued
Val. "She confessed that she had written it partly at your dictation,
Lady Kirton, and said--but I had better not tell you that, perhaps."

"Then you shall tell me, Lord Hartledon; and you are a two-faced man, if
you shuffle out of it."

"Very well. Maude said that she would not for the whole world allow her
children to be brought up by you; she warned me also not to allow you to
obtain too much influence over them."

"It's false!" said the dowager, in no way disconcerted.

"It is perfect