thing, Miss Fulmort. We will only keep our eye on
her. Neither she, nor any one else, shall have any ground for supposing
her under suspicion, but it is our duty to miss no possible indication.
Will you oblige me with her name?'

'She is called Jane, but I do not know her real name,' said Phoebe, with
much reluctance, and in little need of the injunction to secrecy on this
head. The general eagerness to hunt down the criminals saddened her, and
she was glad to be released, with thanks for her distinct evidence. The
kind old chairman then met her, quite with an air of fatherly protection,
such as elderly men often wear towards orphaned maidens, and inquired
more particularly for her brother's health. She was glad to thank him
again for having sent the physician, when his aid was so needful, and she
was in so much difficulty. 'A bold stroke,' he, said, smiling; 'I
thought you might throw all the blame on me if it were needless.'

'Needless--oh! it may have saved him. Is that the carriage? I must get
home as soon as I can.'

'Yes, I am sure you must be anxious, but I hope to see more of you
another time. Lady Raymond must come and see if you cannot find a day to
spend with my girls.'

Lady Raymond! So this was Sir John! Mervyn's foe and maligner! Was he
repenting at the sight of what he had done? Yet he really looked like a
very good, kind old man, and seemed satisfied with the very shabby answer
he obtained to a speech that filled Honor with a sense of her young
friend's victory. There was Phoebe, re-established in the good graces of
the neighbourhood, favoured by the very _elite_ of the county for
goodness, sought by those who had never visited at Beauchamp in the days
of its gaiety and ostentation! Ungrateful child, not to be better
pleased--only saying that she supposed she should go away when her
brother should be well again, and not seeing her way to any day for
Moorcroft! Was she still unforgiving for Mervyn's rejection, or had she
a feeling against visiting those who had not taken notice of her family
before?

Mervyn met Phoebe in the hall, still looking very ill, with his purple
paleness, his heavy eyes, and uncertain steps, and though he called
himself all right, since his sleep, it was with a weary gasp that he sank
into his chair, and called on her for an account of what she had done.
His excitement seemed to have burnt itself out, for he listened
languidly, and asked questions by jerks, do