oon did, she went into hysterics; she had a great
affection for Harold. The hand of fate had struck the Devitts
remorselessly; they were stunned by the blow for quite a long while.
For her part, Mrs Devitt could not believe that Providence would allow
her to suffer such a terrible affliction as was provided by the fact of
her stepson's marriage to Mavis; again and again she looked at the
letter, as if she found it impossible to believe the evidence of her
eyes.

"What's--what's to be done?" gasped Mrs Devitt, when she was presently
able to speak.

"Don't ask me!" replied her husband.

"Can't you do anything?" asked Miss Spraggs, during a pause in her
hysterical weeping.

"Do what?"

"Something: anything. You're a man."

"I haven't grasped it yet. I must think it out," he said, as he began
to walk up and down the room so far as the crowded furniture would
permit.

"We must try and think it's God's will," said his wife, making an
effort to get her thoughts under control.

"What!" cried Devitt, stopping short in his walk to look at his wife
with absent eyes.

"God has singled us out for this bitter punishment," snuffled Mrs
Devitt, as her eyes glanced at the heavily gilded chandelier.

With a gesture of impatience, Devitt resumed his walk, while Miss
Spraggs quickly went to windows and door, which she threw open to their
utmost capacity for admitting air.

"One thing must be done," declared Devitt.

"Yes?" asked his wife eagerly.

"That Hunter girl who split on Mavis Keeves havin' been at Polperro
with Perigal."

"She knows everything; we shall be disgraced," wailed Mrs Devitt.

"Not at all. I'll see to that," replied her husband grimly.

"What will you do?"

"Give her a good job in some place as far from here as possible, and
tell her that, if her tongue wags on a certain subject, she'll get the
sack."

"What!" asked his wife, surprised at her husband's decision and the way
in which he expressed himself.

"Suggest somethin' better."

"I was wondering if it were right."

"Right be blowed! We're fightin' for our own hand."

With this view of the matter, Mrs Devitt was fain to be content.

It was a dismal and forlorn family party which sat down to dinner that
evening under the eye of the fat butler. Husband, wife, and Miss
Spraggs looked grey and old in the light of the table lamps. By this
time Lowther had been told of the trouble which had descended so
suddenly upon the family. His comment