I have been to see Mr. Brooke this afternoon. Strange circumstances
demand new treatment, Miss Brooke. I consulted with my husband as to
what we had better do, and he agreed with me that it would be better for
Lesley if I came here--at any rate for the present."

"Better for Lesley!" Miss Brooke was evidently offended. "I do not think
that you need put yourself to any inconvenience--even for Lesley's sake.
I will take care of her."

"But I happen to be her mother," said Lady Alice, with a touch of
amusement. It struck her as odd that Miss Brooke only amused her now,
and did not make her angry at all. "And we have the world to think of,
besides."

"I scarcely thought you troubled yourself very much about what the world
said," remarked Aunt Sophy, severely. "It has said a good deal during
the last ten or twelve years."

"At least it shall not say," responded Lady Alice, "that I believe my
husband guilty of murder. I have come back to prevent _that_."

Miss Brooke looked at her doubtfully. She was not a person of very quick
perceptions.

"You mean," she said at last, "that you have come back--because----"

"_Because_ he was accused of murder," said Lady Alice, clearly, "and I
choose to show the world that I do not believe it."

And Lesley, entering from the library, heard the words, and stood
transfixed for a moment with pure delight. Then she sprang forward, fell
on her knees before her mother, and embraced her with such fervor that
Miss Brooke put up her eye-glasses and gazed in surprise.

"Mother! my own dearest mother! You do believe in him, then! and you
have come to show us that you do! Oh! how delighted he will be when he
knows!"

A little color showed itself in Lady Alice's delicate face. "He does
know," she whispered, almost with the coyness of a girl.

"And he _was_ delighted, was he not? It would be such a comfort to
him--just now when he wants every kind of comfort. Oh, mamma, it is so
good of you, and I am so glad. Aunty Sophy, aren't you glad, too?"

Lady Alice tried to stifle this naive utterance, but it would not be
repressed, and Aunt Sophy had to rise to the occasion as best she could,
with rather a grim face, she rose from her seat upon the sofa and
advanced towards her brother's wife, holding out a very reluctant hand.

"I appreciate your motives, Lady Alice, and I see that your conduct may
be of service to my brother." Then she relapsed into a more colloquial
tone. "But how on earth you