as sent for immediately, to set it. Now they say
(you, my lady, know all about it, of course,) that there are two bones
in that part of one's arm, below the elbow."

"There are so. Quite correct. There are two bones."

"Well, my lady, all the story depends upon that. The gentleman in
question did set the bones; but he set them across, you see,--as it
might be so." And Miss Nares arranged four pieces of whalebone on the
table in the shape of a long, narrow letter X; there could not have been
a better exemplification. "The consequence was, my lady, that the poor
girl's hand was found, when she had got well, to be turned completely
round: and, in fact, it is all but useless."

"When her hands are in her lap," observed Miss Flint, "the palm of the
right lies uppermost. Ugh!"

"When she beckons the children with that hand," observed Miss Nares,
"they think she means them to go further off. A girl who has to earn
her bread, my lady! It is in everybody's mouth, I assure you."

"What has become of the girl?" asked Lady Hunter.

"Oh, she was got rid of--sent away--to save the credit of the gentleman
in the corner-house. But these things will come out, my lady. You are
aware that the Russell Taylors have for some time been employing Mr
Foster, from Blickley?"

"Ah, true! I had heard of that."

With unrelaxed gravity, Lady Hunter returned to her equipage, carrying
with her Miss Nares's newest cap and story.

As the carriage drew near the corner-house, the driver, as if
sympathising with his lady's thoughts, made his horses go their very
slowest. Lady Hunter raised herself, and leaned forward, that she might
see what she could see in this dangerous abode. The spring evening
sunshine was streaming in at the garden window at the back of the house;
so that the party in the room was perfectly visible, in the thorough
light, to any one who could surmount the obstacle of the blind. Lady
Hunter saw four people sitting at dinner, and somebody was waiting on
them. She could scarcely have told what it was that surprised her; but
she exclaimed to Sir William--

"Good heavens! they are at dinner!"

Sir William called out angrily to the coachman to drive faster, and
asked whether he meant to keep everybody out till midnight.

The Hopes were far less moved by seeing the baronet and his lady driving
by, than the baronet and his lady were by seeing the Hopes dining. They
had not the slightest objection to the great f