He did not fathom in the remotest degree the meaning of her tone. But he
had not gone thither to dispute about ghosts.

"Sibylla," he gravely said, putting the open account into her hand, "I
have received this bill this morning."

Sibylla ran her eyes over it with indifference; first at the bill's
head, to see whence it came, next at its sum total.

"What an old cheat! Eleven hundred pounds! I am sure I have not had the
half."

Lionel pointed to the part "bill delivered." "Was that not paid in the
spring?"

"How can I recollect?" returned Sibylla, speaking as carelessly as
before.

"I think you may recollect if you try. I gave you a cheque for the
amount."

"Oh, yes, I do recollect now. It has not been paid."

"But, my dear, I say I gave the cheque for it."

"I cashed the cheque myself. I wanted some money just then. You can't
think how fast money goes in London, Lionel."

The avowal proved only what he suspected. Nevertheless it hurt him
greatly--grieved him to his heart's core. Not so much the spending of
the money, as the keeping the fact from him. What a lack of good
feeling, of confidence, it proved.

He bent towards her, speaking gently, kindly. Whatever might be her
faults to him, her provocations, he could never behave otherwise to her
than as a thorough gentleman, a kind husband.

"It was not right to use that cheque, Sibylla. It was made out in Madame
Lebeau's name, and should have been paid to her. But why did you not
tell me?"

Sibylla shrugged her shoulders in place of answer. She had picked up
many such little national habits of Mademoiselle Benoite's. Very
conspicuous just then was the upright line on Lionel's brow.

"The amount altogether is, you perceive, eleven hundred pounds," he
continued.

"Yes," said Sibylla. "She's a cheat, that Madame Lebeau. I shall make
Benoite write her a French letter, and tell her so."

"It must be paid. But it is a great deal of money. I cannot continue to
pay these large sums, Sibylla. I have not the money to do it with."

"Not the money! When you know you are paying heaps for Lady Verner!
Before you tell me not to spend, you should cease supplying her."

Lionel's very brow flushed. "My mother has a claim upon me only in a
degree less than you have," he gravely said. "Part of the revenues of
Verner's Pride ought to have been hers years ago; and they were not."

"If my husband had lived--if he had left me a little child--Verner's
Pride would have b