, you might be open with me, for I'm so very miserable! I don't
know what to think. Tell me just this: did you--wasn't it you who came
last night to Miss Tweddle's?"

"No!" returned Ada, impatiently--"no, as many times as you please! And
if Bella likes to say I did, she may; and she always was a
mischief-making thing! How could I, when I didn't know there was any
Miss Tweddle to come to? And what do you suppose I should go running
about after Mr. Tweddle for? I wonder you're not ashamed to say such
things!"

"But," faltered Matilda, "you did go to those gardens with him, didn't
you? And--and I know he gave the ring to somebody!"

Ada began to laugh. "You're quite correct, Miss Collum," she said; "so
he did. Don't you want to know who he gave it to?"

"Yes," said Matilda, "and you will tell me. I have a right to be told. I
was engaged to him, and the ring was given to him for me--not for any
one else. You _will_ tell me, Miss Parkinson, I am sure you will?"

"Well," said Ada, still laughing, "I'll tell you this much--she's a
foreign lady, very stiff and stuck-up and cold. She's got it, if any one
has. I saw him put it on myself!"

"Tell me her name, if you know it."

"I see you won't be easy till you know all about it. Her name's
Afriddity, or Froddity, or something outlandish like that. She lives at
Rosherwich, a good deal in the open air, and--there, don't be
ridiculous--it's only a _statue_! There's a pretty thing to be jealous
of!"

"Only a statue!" echoed Matilda. "Oh! Heaven be with us both, if--if
that was It!"

Certain sentences in the letter she had returned came to her mind with a
new and dreadful significance. The appearance of the visitor last
night--Leander's terror--all seemed to point to some unsuspected
mystery.

"It can't be--no, it can't! Miss Parkinson, you were there: tell me all
that happened, quick! You don't know what may depend on it!"

"What! not satisfied even now?" cried Ada. "_Well_, Miss Collum, talk
about jealousy! But, there, I'll tell you all I know myself."

And she gave the whole account of the episode with the statue, so far as
she knew it, even to the conversation which led to the production of the
ring.

"You see," she concluded, "that it was all on your account that he tried
it on at all, and I'm sure he talked enough about you all the evening. I
really was a little surprised when I found _you_ were his Miss Collum.
(You won't mind my saying so?) If I was you, I shou