ll be here after dinner; the likelihood is that I shouldn't find
him."

"Occasionally--very occasionally--you lack tact, my husband. He would
hardly care to open this and read it in our presence."

"More than occasionally, my dear girl, you remind me of the woman whose
price is above rubies. I'll go over and leave it for him at once. Just
to show the male superiority, however, I shall be careful to make my
walk a few minutes longer than usual--a thing of which you would be
quite incapable whilst the contents of Miriam's letter were unknown to
you."

Alone again, Eleanor sent the letter to Miriam's room by a servant, and
with uncertain fingers broke the envelope of that addressed to herself.
Already she had heard once from Mrs. Lessingham, who ten days ago left
Naples to join certain friends in Rome; the first hurried glance over
the present missive showed that it contained no intelligence. She had
scarcely begun to read it attentively, when the door opened and Miriam
came in.

Her face was pale with agitation, and her eyes had the strangest light
in them; to one who knew nothing of the circumstances, she would have
appeared exultant. Eleanor could not but gaze at her intently.

"From Reuben!"

"Yes." Miriam suppressed her voice, and held out the sheet of
note-paper, which fluttered. "Read it."

The body of the letter was as follows:--

"I hope we have caused you no anxiety; from the first moment when our
departure was known, you must have understood that we had resolved to
put an end to useless delay. We travelled to London as brother and
sister, and to-day have become man and wife. The above will be our
address for a short time; we have not yet decided where we shall
ultimately live.

"By this same post I write to Mallard, addressed to him at the villa. I
hope he has had the good sense to wait quietly for news.

"Cecily sends her love to you--though she half fears that you will
reject it. I cannot see why you should. We have done the only sensible
thing, and of course in a month or two it will be just the same, to
everybody concerned, as if we had been married in the most foolish way
that respectability can contrive. Let us hear from you very soon, dear
sister. We talk much of you, and hope to have many a bright day with
you yet--more genuinely happy than that we spent in tracking out old
Tiberius."

Eleanor looked up, and again was struck with the singular light in her
cousin's eyes.

"Well, it on