"Not even then."

She looked toward the next room. "Go in, Howel, and bring Mrs. Evelin
back; I have something to say to her."

The discovery that she had left the house caused no fear that she had
taken to flight with the purpose of concealing herself. There was a
prospect before the poor lonely woman which might be trusted to preserve
her from despair, to say the least of it.

During her brief residence in Beaucourt's house she had shown to Lady
Howel a letter received from a relation, who had emigrated to New
Zealand with her husband and her infant children some years since. They
had steadily prospered; they were living in comfort, and they wanted for
nothing but a trustworthy governess to teach their children. The
mother had accordingly written, asking if her relative in England could
recommend a competent person, and offering a liberal salary. In showing
the letter to Lady Howel, Mrs. Evelin had said: "If I had not been
so happy as to attract your notice, I might have offered to be the
governess myself."

Assuming that it had now occurred to her to act on this idea, Lady Howel
felt assured that she would apply for advice either to the publishers
who had recommended her, or to Lord Howel's old friend.

Beaucourt at once offered to make th e inquiries which might satisfy his
wife that she had not been mistaken. Readily accepting his proposal, she
asked at the same time for a few minutes of delay.

"I want to say to you," she explained, "what I had in my mind to say to
Mrs. Evelin. Do you object to tell me why she refused to marry you? I
couldn't have done it in her place."

"You would have done it, my dear, as I think, if her misfortune had been
your misfortune." With those prefatory words he told the miserable story
of Mrs. Evelin's marriage.

Lady Howel's sympathies, strongly excited, appeared to have led her to a
conclusion which she was not willing to communicate to her husband. She
asked him, rather abruptly, if he would leave it to her to find Mrs.
Evelin. "I promise," she added, "to tell you what I am thinking of, when
I come back."

In two minutes more she was ready to go out, and had hurriedly left the
house.

V.

AFTER a long absence Lady Howel returned, accompanied by Dick. His face
and manner betrayed unusual agitation; Beaucourt noticed it.

"I may well be excited," Dick declared, "after what I have heard, and
after what we have done. Lady Howel, yours is the brain that thinks to
some pur