nice woman, and I've
taken the greatest fancy to her!"

"I'm glad you have," said Sir Adam, gravely. "I say, my dear--don't be
surprised, you know--I warned you. We knew each other very well--it's
not what you think at all, and she was altogether in the right and I was
quite in the wrong about it. I say, now--don't be startled--she's my
divorced wife--that's all."

"She! Mrs. Bowring! Oh, Adam--how could you treat her so!"

Lady Johnstone leaned back in her chair and slowly turned her head till
she could look out of the window. She was almost rosy with surprise--a
change of colour in her sanguine complexion which was equivalent to
extreme pallor in other persons. Sir Adam looked at her affectionately.

"What an awfully good woman you are!" he exclaimed, in genuine
admiration.

"I! No, I'm not good at all. I was thinking that if you hadn't been such
a brute to her I could never have married you. I don't suppose that is
good, is it? But you were a brute, all the same, Adam, dear, to hurt
such a woman as that!"

"Of course I was! I told you so when I told you the story. But I didn't
expect that you'd ever meet."

"No, it is an extraordinary thing. I suppose that if I had any nerves I
should faint. It would be an awful thing if I did; you'd have to get
those porters to pick me up!" She smiled meditatively. "But I haven't
fainted, you see. And, after all, I don't see why it should be so very
dreadful, do you? You see, you've rather broken me in to the idea of
lots of other people in your life, and I've always pitied her sincerely.
I don't see why I should stop pitying her because I've met her and taken
such a fancy to her without knowing who she was. Do you?"

"Most women would," observed Sir Adam. "It's lucky that you and she
happen to be the two best women in the world. I told Brook so this
morning."

"Brook? Have you told him?"

"I had to. He wants to marry her daughter."

"Brook! It's impossible!"

Lady Johnstone's tone betrayed so much more surprise and displeasure
than when her husband had told her of Mrs. Bowring's identity that he
stared at her in surprise.

"I don't see why it's impossible," he said, "except that she has
refused him once. That's nothing. The first time doesn't count."

"He sha'n't!" said the fat lady, whose vivid colour had come back.
"He'll make her miserable--just as you--no, I won't say that! But they
are not in the least suited to one another--he's far too young; there
are fif