ot of course to watch
Sir Montague, for that they could not well do to a guest, but simply to
keep their eyes open and prepared for any sign of intercourse, if such
there were, between this gentleman and that strange interloper. Major
Hockin stared, and his wife looked at me as if my poor mind must
have gone astray, and even to myself my own thought appeared absurd.
Remembering, however, what Sir Montague had said, and other little
things as well, I did not laugh as they did. But perhaps one part of my
conduct was not right, though the wrong (if any) had been done before
that--to wit, I had faithfully promised Mrs. Price not to say a word
at Bruntlands about their visitor's low and sinful treachery toward my
cousin. To give such a promise had perhaps been wrong, but still without
it I should have heard nothing of matters that concerned me nearly. And
now it seemed almost worse to keep than to break such a pledge, when I
thought of a pious, pure-minded, and holy-hearted woman, like my dear
"Aunt Mary," unwittingly brought into friendly contact with a man of the
lowest nature. And as for the Major, instead of sitting down with such
a man to dinner, what would he have done but drive him straightway from
the door, and chase him to the utmost verge of his manor with the peak
end of his "geological hammer?"

However, away I went without a word against that contemptible and base
man, toward whom--though he never had injured me--I cherished, for my
poor cousin's sake, the implacable hatred of virtuous youth. And a wild
idea had occurred to me (as many wild ideas did now in the crowd of
things gathering round me) that this strange woman, concealed from the
world, yet keenly watching some members of it, might be that fallen and
miserable creature who had fled from a good man with a bad one, because
he was more like herself--Flittamore, Lady Castlewood. Not that she
could be an "old woman" yet, but she might look old, either by disguise,
or through her own wickedness; and every body knows how suddenly those
southern beauties fall off, alike in face and figure. Mrs. Price had not
told me what became of her, or even whether she was dead or alive, but
merely said, with a meaning look, that she was "punished" for her sin,
and I had not ventured to inquire how, the subject being so distasteful.

To my great surprise, and uneasiness as well, I had found at Bruntlands
no letter whatever, either to the Major or myself, from Uncle Sam or a