our, and they suddenly altered their minds, and came back
to England on Sunday last."

"Dear Lady Lundie, it's not that! Have you heard nothing about Mr.
Brinkworth except what you have just told me?"

"Nothing."

There was a pause. Mrs. Glenarm toyed hesitatingly with her parasol.
Lady Lundie leaned forward in the bed, and looked at her attentively.

"What have _you_ heard about him?" she asked.

Mrs. Glenarm was embarrassed. "It's so difficult to say," she began.

"I can bear any thing but suspense," said Lady Lundie. "Tell me the
worst."

Mrs. Glenarm decided to risk it. "Have you never heard," she asked,
"that Mr. Brinkworth might possibly have committed himself with another
lady before he married Miss Lundie?"

Her ladyship first closed her eyes in horror and then searched blindly
on the counterpane for the smelling-bottle. Mrs. Glenarm gave it to her,
and waited to see how the invalid bore it before she said any more.

"There are things one _must_ hear," remarked Lady Lundie. "I see an act
of duty involved in this. No words can describe how you astonish me. Who
told you?"

"Mr. Geoffrey Delamayn told me."

Her ladyship applied for the second time to the smelling-bottle. "Arnold
Brinkworth's most intimate friend!" she exclaimed. "He ought to know if
any body does. This is dreadful. Why should Mr. Geoffrey Delamayn tell
_you?_"

"I am going to marry him," answered Mrs. Glenarm. "That is my excuse,
dear Lady Lundie, for troubling you in this matter."

Lady Lundie partially opened her eyes in a state of faint bewilderment.
"I don't understand," she said. "For Heaven's sake explain yourself!"

"Haven't you heard about the anonymous letters?" asked Mrs. Glenarm.

Yes. Lady Lundie had heard about the letters. But only what the public
in general had heard. The name of the lady in the background not
mentioned; and Mr. Geoffrey Delamayn assumed to be as innocent as the
babe unborn. Any mistake in that assumption? "Give me your hand, my poor
dear, and confide it all to _me!_"

"He is not quite innocent," said Mrs. Glenarm. "He owned to a foolish
flirtation--all _her_ doing, no doubt. Of course, I insisted on a
distinct explanation. Had she really any claim on him? Not the shadow of
a claim. I felt that I only had his word for that--and I told him so.
He said he could prove it--he said he knew her to be privately married
already. Her husband had disowned and deserted her; she was at the
end of her resource