a
clerk in the Post Office. I believe there isn't a bit of
doubt but he has been and got himself engaged to another
of your ladyship's noble family. As to that, all Holloway
is talking of it. I don't believe there is a 'bus driver
up and down the road as doesn't know it. It's my belief
that Mrs. Roden is the doing of it all! She has taken
Marion Fay by the hand just as though she were her own,
and now she has got the young lord and the young lady
right into her mashes. If none of 'em isn't married yet it
won't be long so unless somebody interferes. If you don't
believe me do you send to the 'Duchess of Edinburgh' at
the corner, and you'll find that they know all about it.

Now, my Lady Marchioness, I've thought it my duty to
tell you all this because I don't like to see a noble
family put upon. There isn't nothing for me to get out
of it myself. But I do it just as one of the family's
well-wishers. Therefore I sign myself your very
respectful,

A WELL-WISHER.

The young lady had told her story completely as far as her object was
concerned, which was simply that of making mischief. But the business
of anonymous letter-writing was one not new to her hand. It is easy,
and offers considerable excitement to the minds of those whose time
hangs heavy on their hands.

The Marchioness, though she would probably have declared beforehand
that anonymous letters were of all things the most contemptible,
nevertheless read this more than once with a great deal of care.
And she believed it altogether. As to Lady Frances, of course she
knew the allegations to be true. Seeing that the writer was so well
acquainted with the facts as to Lady Frances, why should she be less
well-informed in reference to Lord Hampstead? Such a marriage as this
with the Quaker girl was exactly the sort of match which Hampstead
would be pleased to make. Then she was especially annoyed by the
publicity of the whole affair. That Holloway and the drivers of the
omnibuses, and the "Duchess of Edinburgh" should know all the secrets
of her husband's family,--should be able to discuss the disgrace to
which "her own darlings" would be subjected, was terrible to her. But
perhaps the sting that went sharpest to her heart was that which came
from the fact that Lord Hampstead was about to be married at all. Let
the wife be a Quaker or what not, let her be as low as any woman that
could be found within the