an. "Whom, then?" "Whom? Whom should he have
selected but

"'The Rose that all ad-mi-r-r-?'

"Clarence, what, in the fiend's name, do you mean? Whom has my father
married?" demanded Mr. Fabian, starting up and staring at his younger
brother.

"Mrs. Rose Flowers Stillwater," replied Mr. Clarence, staring back.

Mr. Fabian dropped back in his chair, while every vestige of color left
his face.

"Why, Fabian! Fabian! Why should you care so much as all this? Speak,
Fabian; what is the matter?" inquired the younger brother, rising and
bending over the elder.

"What is the matter?" cried Mr. Fabian, excitedly. "Ruin is the matter!
Ruin, disgrace, dishonor, degradation, an abyss of infamy; that is the
matter."

"Oh, come now! see here! that is all wild talk. The young woman was only
a nursery governess, to be sure, in our house, and then widow of some
skipper or other; but she was respectable, though of humble position."

"Clarence, hush! You know nothing about it!" exclaimed Mr. Fabian,
wiping his forehead with his handkerchief, and then getting up and
walking the floor with rapid strides.

"I don't understand all this, Fabian. We were all of us a good deal cut
up by the event, but nothing like this!" said Mr. Clarence, uneasily.

"No; you don't understand. But listen to me: I was on my way to Rockhold
to join in the family reunion, and to show the old homestead to my wife;
but I cannot take her there now. I cannot introduce her to the new Mrs.
Rockharrt--the new Mrs. Rockharrt!" he repeated, in a tone and with a
gesture of disgust and abhorrence. "I shall turn back, and take my wife
to our new home; and when I go to Rockhold, I shall go alone."

"Fabian, you make me dreadfully uneasy. What do you know of Rose
Stillwater that is to her discredit?" demanded Clarence Rockharrt.

His elder brother paused in his excited walk, dropped his head upon his
chest and reflected for a few moments. Then he seemed to recover some
degree of self-control and self-recollection. He returned to his chair,
sat down, and said:

"Of my own personal knowledge I know nothing against the woman but just
this--that she is but half educated, deceitful, and unreliable. And that
knowledge I gained by experience after she had first left Rockhold, to
which I had first introduced her for a governess to our niece. I had
nothing to do with her return to the old hall, and would have never
countenanced such a proceeding if I had been in the co