e said, looking up from her knitting, with a little
rhetorical movement of her hand which Elinor feared, and which showed
that she felt herself on assured and certain ground:

"My dear, I have been thinking. I have made it out day by day. God knows
there were plenty of landmarks in it to keep any one from forgetting. I
can now make out certainly the day--of which we were speaking; and if
you will give me your attention for a minute or two, Elinor, you will
see that whatever the calendar said--which I never noticed, for it was
as often wrong as right--you are making a mis----"

"Oh, for Heaven's sake, mother," cried Elinor, "don't let us talk of
that any more!"

"I have no desire to talk of it, my dear child; but for what you said
I should never---- But of course we must take some action about this
thing--this paper you have got. And it seems to me that the best thing
would be to write to John, and see whether he could not manage to get it
transferred from you to me. I can't see what difficulty there could be
about that."

"I would not have it for the world, mother! And what good would it do?
The great thing in it, the dreadful thing, would be unchanged. Whether
you appear or me, Pippo would be made to know, all the same, what it has
been our joint object to conceal from him all his life."

Mrs. Dennistoun did not say anything, but she would not have been mortal
if she had not, very slightly, but yet very visibly to keen eyes, shaken
her head.

"I know what you mean," said Elinor, vehemently, "that it has been I,
and not we, whose object has been to conceal it from him. Oh, yes, I
know you are right; but at least you consented to it, you have helped in
it, it is your doing as well as mine."

"Elinor, Elinor!" cried her mother, who, having always protested, was
not prepared for this accusation.

"Is there any advantage to be got," said Elinor, like an injured and
indignant champion of the right, "in opening up the whole question over
again now?"

What could poor Mrs. Dennistoun do? She was confounded, as she often had
been before, by those swift and sudden tactics. She gave a glance up at
her daughter over her spectacles, but she said nothing. Argument, she
knew by long experience, was difficult to keep up with such an opponent.

"But John is an idea," said Elinor. "I don't know why I should not have
thought of him. He may suggest something that could be done."

"I thought of him, of course, at once," said Mr