and why it had been set for him) as he had not seen it
yet. Mrs. Milroy had clearly placed him between two alternatives--the
alternative of putting himself in the wrong, by declining to answer
her husband's questions; or the alternative of meanly sheltering his
responsibility behind the responsibility of a woman, by acknowledging to
the major's own face that the major's wife had deceived him.

In this difficulty Allan acted as usual, without hesitation. His pledge
to Mrs. Milroy to consider their correspondence private still bound him,
disgracefully as she had abused it. And his resolution was as immovable
as ever to let no earthly consideration tempt him into betraying Miss
Gwilt. "I may have behaved like a fool," he thought, "but I won't break
my word; and I won't be the means of turning that miserable woman adrift
in the world again."

He wrote to the major as artlessly and briefly as he had written to
the major's wife. He declared his unwillingness to cause a friend and
neighbor any disappointment, if he could possibly help it. On this
occasion he had no other choice. The questions the major asked him were
questions which he could not consent to answer. He was not very clever
at explaining himself, and he hoped he might be excused for putting it
in that way, and saying no more.

Monday's post brought with it Major Milroy's rejoinder, and closed the
correspondence.

"The Cottage, Thorpe Ambrose, Sunday.

"SIR--Your refusal to answer my questions, unaccompanied as it is by
even the shadow of an excuse for such a proceeding, can be interpreted
but in one way. Besides being an implied acknowledgment of the
correctness of Mrs. Milroy's statement, it is also an implied reflection
on my governess's character. As an act of justice toward a lady who
lives under the protection of my roof, and who has given me no reason
whatever to distrust her, I shall now show our correspondence to Miss
Gwilt; and I shall repeat to her the conversation which I had with Mrs.
Milroy on the subject, in Mrs. Milroy's presence.

"One word more respecting the future relations between us, and I have
done. My ideas on certain subjects are, I dare say, the ideas of an
old-fashioned man. In my time, we had a code of honor by which we
regulated our actions. According to that code, if a man made private
inquiries into a lady's affairs, without being either her husband, her
father, or her brother, he subjected himself to the responsibility of
ju