andro." Aunt Maria's
advice echoed in her ears as she watched the two men round whom the
struggle of her soul centred, the struggle that she had thought was
finished on the day when she promised to become Alexander Quisante's
wife.

"I shall keep you both to your word," said Marchmont when he left them.
May nodded, smiling slightly. Quisante said all and more than all the
proper things.

CHAPTER IX.

LEAD US NOT.

After a long sojourn in kindlier climates, Miss Quisante returned to
England some eighteen months after May Gaston's marriage. From various
hotels and boarding-houses she had watched with an interested eye the
progress of public affairs so far as they concerned her nephew. She had
seen how his name became more prominent and was more frequently mentioned,
how the hopes and fears about him grew, how he had gained glory by dashing
sorties in defence of the severely-pressed Government garrison; if the
garrison decided (as rumour said they would) to sally out and try fortune
in the open field of a General Election, and proved victorious, it could
not be doubted that they would bestow a handsome reward on their gallant
defender. Quisante bid fair to eclipse his rivals and to justify to the
uttermost Dick Benyon's sagacity and enthusiasm. The bitterness of the
foe told the same story; unless a man is feared, he is not caricatured
in a comic paper in the guise of a juggler keeping three balls in the
air at once, the said balls being each of them legibly inscribed with
one of the three words, "Gas--Gabble--Grab." Such a straining of the
usual amenity of controversy witnesses to grave apprehension. Miss
Quisante in her _pension_ at Florence smiled contentedly.

Of his private life her information had not been very ample. She had heard
several times from May, but May occupied her pen chiefly with her husband's
political aims. She had heard once from Sandro himself, when he informed
her that his wife had borne him a daughter and that all had gone very
well indeed. Again Miss Quisante smiled approvingly. She sent her love to
May and expressed to Sandro the hope that the baby would resemble its
mother in appearance, constitution, and disposition; the passage was a
good example of that _expressio unius_ which is a most emphatic and
unmistakable _exclusio alterius_. In the letter she enclosed a cheque
for three hundred pounds; the _pensions_ were cheaper t