he room?"

"Yes, he called me after that."

"Well?"

"He bade me not talk about Lady Frances."

"I dare say not. He does not wish to hear her name spoken. I can
understand that."

"He does not wish me to mention her to you."

"Not to me? Is my mouth to be stopped? I shall say respecting her
whatever I think fit. I dare say, indeed!"

"It was to my talking that he referred."

"He cannot stop people's mouths. It is all nonsense. He should have
kept her at Koenigsgraaf, and locked her up till she had changed her
mind."

"He wanted me to promise that I would not speak of her to your
ladyship."

"And what did you say?" He shrugged his shoulders, and drank his tea.
She shook her head and bit her lips. She would not hold her tongue,
be he ever so angry. "I almost wish that she would marry the man,
so that the matter might be settled. I don't suppose he would ever
mention her name then himself. Has she gone back to Hendon yet?"

"I don't know, my lady."

"This is his punishment for having run counter to his uncle's wishes
and his uncle's principles. You cannot touch pitch and not be
defiled." The pitch, as Mr. Greenwood very well understood, was the
first Marchioness. "Did he say anything about Hampstead?"

"Not a word."

"I suppose we are not to talk about him either! Unfortunate young
man! I wonder whether he feels himself how thoroughly he is
destroying the family."

"I should think he must."

"Those sort of men are so selfish that they never think of any one
else. It does not occur to him what Frederic might be if he were not
in the way. Nothing annoys me so much as when he pretends to be fond
of the children."

"I suppose he won't come any more now."

"Nothing will keep him away,--unless he were to die." Mr. Greenwood
shook his head sadly. "They say he rides hard."

"I don't know." There was something in the suggestion which at the
moment made the clergyman almost monosyllabic.

"Or his yacht might go down with him."

"He never yachts at this time of the year," said the clergyman,
feeling comfort in the security thus assured.

"I suppose not. Bad weeds never get cut off. But yet it is
astonishing how many elder sons have been--taken away, during the
last quarter of a century."

"A great many."

"There never could have been one who could be better spared," said
the stepmother.

"Yes;--he might be spared."

"If you only think of the advantage to the family! It will be ruined
if he comes