horne--"

"Mary, Mary, Mary."

"Ah, well! I shall do it in time. But, Miss--Mary, ha! ha! ha! never
mind, let me alone. But what I want to say is this: do you think I
could drop it? Hannah says, that if I go the right way about it she
is sure I can."

"Oh! but, Lady Scatcherd, you shouldn't think of such a thing."

"Shouldn't I now?"

"Oh, no; for your husband's sake you should be proud of it. He gained
great honour, you know."

"Ah, well," said she, sighing after a short pause; "if you think it
will do him any good, of course I'll put up with it. And then I know
Louis would be mad if I talked of such a thing. But, Miss Thorne,
dear, a woman like me don't like to have to be made a fool of all the
days of her life if she can help it."

"But, Lady Scatcherd," said Mary, when this question of the title had
been duly settled, and her ladyship made to understand that she must
bear the burden for the rest of her life, "but, Lady Scatcherd, you
were speaking of Sir Roger's sister; what became of her?"

"Oh, she did very well at last, as Sir Roger did himself; but in
early life she was very unfortunate--just at the time of my marriage
with dear Roger--," and then, just as she was about to commence so
much as she knew of the history of Mary Scatcherd, she remembered
that the author of her sister-in-law's misery had been a Thorne, a
brother of the doctor; and, therefore, as she presumed, a relative of
her guest; and suddenly she became mute.

"Well," said Mary; "just as you were married, Lady Scatcherd?"

Poor Lady Scatcherd had very little worldly knowledge, and did not
in the least know how to turn the conversation or escape from the
trouble into which she had fallen. All manner of reflections began to
crowd upon her. In her early days she had known very little of the
Thornes, nor had she thought much of them since, except as regarded
her friend the doctor; but at this moment she began for the first
time to remember that she had never heard of more than two brothers in
the family. Who then could have been Mary's father? She felt at once
that it would be improper for to say anything as to Henry Thorne's
terrible faults and sudden fate;--improper also, to say more about
Mary Scatcherd; but she was quite unable to drop the matter otherwise
than abruptly, and with a start.

"She was very unfortunate, you say, Lady Scatcherd?"

"Yes, Miss Thorne; Mary, I mean--never mind me--I shall do it in
time. Yes, she was; but n