dread the meeting with Greville,--he yearned for it. He
needed an adviser, a confidant, a friend. To dismiss abruptly his guests
from his house,--impossible; to abandon Helen because of her father's
crime or her aunt's fault (whatever that last might be, and no clear
detail of it was given),--that never entered his thoughts! Pure and
unsullied, the starry face of Helen shone the holier for the cloud
around it. An inexpressible and chivalrous compassion mingled with his
love and confirmed his faith. She, poor child, to suffer for the deeds
of others,--no. What availed his power as man, and dignity as gentleman,
if they could not wrap in their own shelter the one by whom such shelter
was now doubly needed? Thus, amidst all his emotions, firm and resolved
at least on one point, and beginning already to recover the hope of his
sanguine nature, from his reliance on his mother's love, on the promises
that softened her disclosures and warnings, and on his conviction
that Helen had only to be seen for every scruple to give way, Percival
wandered back towards the house, and coming abruptly on the terrace, he
encountered Varney, who was leaning motionless against the balustrades,
with an open letter in his hand. Varney was deadly pale, and there was
the trace of some recent and gloomy agitation in the relaxed muscles
of his cheeks, usually so firmly rounded. But Percival did not heed his
appearance as he took him gravely by the arm, and leading him into the
garden, said, after a painful pause,--

"Varney, I am about to ask you two questions, which your close
connection with Madame Dalibard may enable you to answer, but in which,
from obvious motives, I must demand the strictest confidence. You will
not hint to her or to Helen what I am about to say?"

Varney stared uneasily on Percival's serious countenance, and gave the
promise required.

"First, then, for what offence was Madame Dalibard expelled her uncle's
house,--this house of Laughton?

"Secondly, what is the crime with which Mr. Mainwaring, Helen's father,
is charged?"

"With regard to the first," said Varney, recovering his composure, "I
thought I had already told you that Sir Miles was a proud man, and that
in consequence of discovering a girlish flirtation between his niece
Lucretia (now Madame Dalibard) and Mainwaring, who afterwards jilted her
for Helen's mother, he altered his will; 'expelled her his house' is too
harsh a phrase. This is all I know. With regard