Julius.

"_You_ may find it convenient, Mr. Delamayn, to forget what your brother
has told us about that person. _I_ happen to remember it."

"So do I, Mrs. Glenarm. But, with my experience of Geoffrey--" He
hesitated, and ran his fingers nervously over the strings of his violin.

"You don't believe him?" said Mrs. Glenarm.

Julius declined to admit that he doubted his brother's word, to the lady
who was about to become his brother's wife.

"I don't quite go that length," he said. "I find it difficult to
reconcile what Geoffrey has told us, with Miss Silvester's manner and
appearance--"

"Her appearance!" cried Mrs. Glenarm, in a transport of astonishment and
disgust. "_Her_ appearance! Oh, the men! I beg your pardon--I ought to
have remembered that there is no accounting for tastes. Go on--pray go
on!"

"Shall we compose ourselves with a little music?" suggested Julius.

"I particularly request you will go on," answered Mrs. Glenarm,
emphatically. "You find it 'impossible to reconcile'--"

"I said 'difficult.'"

"Oh, very well. Difficult to reconcile what Geoffrey told us, with Miss
Silvester's manner and appearance. What next? You had something else to
say, when I was so rude as to interrupt you. What was it?"

"Only this," said Julius. "I don't find it easy to understand Sir
Patrick Lundie's conduct in permitting Mr. Brinkworth to commit bigamy
with his niece."

"Wait a minute! The marriage of that horrible woman to Mr. Brinkworth
was a private marriage. Of course, Sir Patrick knew nothing about it!"

Julius owned that this might be possible, and made a second attempt to
lead the angry lady back to the piano. Useless, once more! Though she
shrank from confessing it to herself, Mrs. Glenarm's belief in the
genuineness of her lover's defense had been shaken. The tone taken by
Julius--moderate as it was--revived the first startling suspicion of the
credibility of Geoffrey's statement which Anne's language and conduct
had forced on Mrs. Glenarm. She dropped into the nearest chair, and
put her handkerchief to her eyes. "You always hated poor Geoffrey," she
said, with a burst of tears. "And now you're defaming him to me!"

Julius managed her admirably. On the point of answering her seriously,
he checked himself. "I always hated poor Geoffrey," he repeated, with
a smile. "You ought to be the last person to say that, Mrs. Glenarm!
I brought him all the way from London expressly to introduce him to
_you._"