tumbling-blocks?" asked the Marquis in his wrath.
Then there was a scene which was sad enough. She had to confess
that she had spoken very freely to the chaplain respecting her
step-children. "Freely! What does freely mean? Do you want them out
of the way?" What a question for a husband to have to ask his wife!
But she had a door by which she could partly escape. It was not
that she had wanted them out of the way, but that she had been so
horrified by what she had thought to be their very improper ideas as
to their own rank of life. Those marriages which they had intended
had caused her to speak as she had done to the chaplain. When alone
at Trafford she had no doubt opened her mind to the clergyman. She
rested a great deal on the undoubted fact that Mr. Greenwood was
a clergyman. Hampstead and Fanny had been stumbling-blocks to her
ambition because she had desired to see them married properly into
proper families. She probably thought that she was telling the truth
as she said all this. It was at any rate accepted as truth, and
she was condoned. As to Hampstead, it was known by this time that
that marriage could never take place; and as to Lady Frances, the
Marchioness was driven, in her present misery, to confess, that as
the Duca was in truth a Duca, his family must be held to be proper.

But the Marquis sent for Mr. Cumming, his London solicitor, and put
all the letters into his hand,--with such explanation as he thought
necessary to give. Mr. Cumming at first recommended that the pension
should be altogether stopped; but to this the Marquis did not
consent. "It would not suit me that he should starve," said the
Marquis. "But if he continues to write to her ladyship something must
be done."

"Threatening letters to extort money!" said the lawyer confidently.
"I can have him before a magistrate to-morrow, my lord, if it be
thought well." It was, however, felt to be expedient that Mr. Cumming
should in the first case send for Mr. Greenwood, and explain to that
gentleman the nature of the law.

Mr. Cumming no doubt felt himself that it would be well that Mr.
Greenwood should not starve, and well also that application should
not be made to the magistrate, unless as a last resort. He, too,
asked himself what was meant by "stumbling-blocks." Mr. Greenwood was
a greedy rascal, descending to the lowest depth of villany with the
view of making money out of the fears of a silly woman. But the silly
woman, the lawyer thoug