than parallels sometimes, but not always,'
said Lady Ronnisglen.

'Which are we?' asked Annaple demurely.

'Not parallels certainly, for then we should never meet,' responded
Mark. 'But here is the proposal. My father and all the rest of us
have been doing our best to get my uncle to smooth Ursula's way by
getting rid of that valet of his.'

'The man with the Mephistopheles face?'

'Exactly. He is a consummate scoundrel, as we all know, and so does my
uncle himself, but he has been about him these twelve or fourteen
years, and has got a sort of hold on him--that--that-- It is no use to
talk of it, but it did not make that dear aunt of mine have an easier
life. In fact I should not be a bit surprised if he had been a
hindrance in the hunting her up. Well, the fellow thought proper to
upset some arrangements my mother had made, and then was more insolent
than I should have thought even he could have been towards her. I
suppose he had got into the habit with poor Aunt Alice. That made a
fulcrum, and my father went at my uncle with a will. I never saw my
father so roused in my life. I don't mean by the behaviour to his
wife, but at what he knew of the fellow, and all the harm he had done
and is doing. And actually my uncle gave in at last, and consented to
tell Gregorio to look out for another situation, if he has not
feathered his nest too well to need one, as I believe he has.'

'Oh, that will make it much easier for Ursula!' cried Annaple.

'If he goes,' put in her mother.

'I think he will. I really had no notion how much these two years have
improved my uncle! To be sure, it would be hard to live with such a
woman as that without being the better for it! But he really seems to
have acquired a certain notion of duty!'

They did not smile at the simple way in which Mark spoke of this vast
advance, and Lady Ronnisglen said, 'I hope so, for the sake of his
daughter and that poor little boy.'

'I think that has something to do with it,' said Mark. 'He feels a
responsibility, and still more, I think he was struck by having a
creature with him to whom evil was like physical pain.'

'It will work,' said Lady Ronnisglen.

'Then,' went on Mark, 'he took us all by surprise by making me this
proposal--to take the management of the estate, and become a kind of
private secretary to him. You know he gets rheumatism on the optic
nerve, and is almost blind at times. He would give me L300 a year, and
do up