s second cousin to Mr. Crook's brother's wife--I speak
of that Mr. Crook who had been professionally known for the last
thirty years as the partner of Mr. Round. It had been whispered in
the office in Bedford Row--such whisper I fear originating with old
Round--that Mr. Furnival admired his fair client. Hence light had
fallen upon the eyes of Martha Biggs, and the secret of her friend
was known to her. Need I trace the course of the tale with closer
accuracy?

"Oh, Kitty," she had said to her friend with tears that evening--"I
cannot bear to keep it to myself any more! I cannot when I see you
suffering so. It's awful."

"Cannot bear to keep what, Martha?"

"Oh, I know. Indeed all the town knows it now."

"Knows what? You know how I hate that kind of thing. If you have
anything to say, speak out."

This was not kind to such a faithful friend as Martha Biggs; but
Martha knew what sacrifices friendship such as hers demanded, and she
did not resent it.

"Well then;--if I am to speak out, it's--Lady Mason. And I do say
that it's shameful, quite shameful;--and awful; I call it awful."

Mrs. Furnival had not said much at the time to encourage the fidelity
of her friend, but she was thus justified in declaring to herself
that her husband's goings on had become the talk of all the
world;--and his goings on especially in that quarter in which she
had long regarded them with so much dismay. She was not therefore
prepared to welcome him on this occasion of his coming home to dinner
by such tokens of friendly feeling as the dismissal of her friend to
Red Lion Square. When the moment for absolute war should come Martha
Biggs should be made to depart.

Mr. Furnival when he arrived at his own house was in a thoughtful
mood, and disposed for quiet and domestic meditation. Had Miss Biggs
not been there he could have found it in his heart to tell everything
about Lady Mason to his wife, asking her counsel as to what he should
do with reference to that marriage. Could he have done so, all would
have been well; but this was not possible while that red-faced lump
of a woman from Red Lion Square sat in his drawing-room, making
everything uncomfortable.

The three sat down to dinner together, and very little was said
between them. Mr. Furnival did try to be civil to his wife, but wives
sometimes have a mode of declining such civilities without committing
themselves to overt acts of war. To Miss Biggs Mr. Furnival could not
bring h