d it is really true, as Miss Raeburn says, that she
broke it off because she could not get Lord Maxwell and Mr. Raeburn to
sign the petition for the poacher?"

"Somewhere about true," said Wharton, carelessly.

"Miss Raeburn always gives the same account; you can never get anything
else out of her. But I sometimes wonder whether it is the _whole_ truth.
_You_ think she was sincere?"

"Well, she gave up Maxwell Court and thirty thousand a year," he replied
drily. "I should say she had at least earned the benefit of the doubt."

"I mean," said Lady Selina, "was she in love with anybody else, and was
the poacher an excuse?"

She turned upon him as she spoke--a smiling, self-possessed person--a
little spoilt by those hard, inquisitive eyes.

"No, I think not," said Wharton, throwing his head back to meet her
scrutiny. "If so, nothing has been heard of him yet. Miss Boyce has been
at St. Edward's Hospital for the last year."

"To learn nursing? It is what all the women do nowadays, they tell me,
who can't get on with their relations or their lovers. Do you suppose it
is such a very hard life?"

"I don't want to try!" said Wharton. "Do you?"

She evaded his smile.

"What is she going to do when she has done her training?"

"Settle down and nurse among the poor, I believe."

"Magnificent, no doubt, but hardly business, from her point of view. How
much more she might have done for the poor with thirty thousand a year!
And any woman could put up with Aldous Raeburn."

Wharton shrugged his shoulders.

"We come back to those feelings, Lady Selina, you think so badly of."

She laughed.

"Well, but feelings must be intelligible. And this seems so small a
cause. However, were you there when it was broken off?"

"No; I have never seen her since the day of the poacher's trial."

"Oh! So she has gone into complete seclusion from all her friends?"

"That I can't answer for. I can only tell you my own experience."

Lady Selina bethought herself of a great many more questions to ask, but
somehow did not ask them. The talk fell upon politics, which lasted till
the hostess gave the signal, and Lady Selina, gathering up her fan and
gloves, swept from the room next after the Countess at the head of the
table, while a host of elderly ladies, wives of ministers and the like,
stood meekly by to let her pass.

As he sat down again, Wharton made the entry of the dinner at Alresford
House, to which he had just promised himse