heard me spoken ill of by Lady Knollys?'

'Lady Knollys,' I said, half articulately,' speaks very freely, and often
half in jest; but,' I continued, observing something menacing in his face,
'I have heard her express disapprobation of some things you have done.'

'Come, Maud,' he continued, in a stern, though still a low key, 'did she
not insinuate that charge--then, I suppose, in a state of incubation,
the other day presented here full-fledged, with beak and claws, by that
scheming apothecary--the statement that I was defrauding you by cutting
down timber upon the grounds?'

'She certainly did mention the circumstance; but she also argued that it
might have been through ignorance of the extent of your rights.'

'Come, come, Maud, you must not prevaricate, girl. I _will_ have it. Does
she not habitually speak disparagingly of me, in your presence, and _to_
you? _Answer_.'

I hung my head.

'Yes or no?'

'Well, perhaps so--yes,' I faltered, and burst into tears.

'There, don't cry; it may well shock you. Did she not, to your knowledge,
say the same things in presence of my child Millicent? I know it, I
repeat--there is no use in hesitating; and I command you to answer.'

Sobbing, I told the truth.

'Now sit still, while I write my reply.'

He wrote, with the scowl and smile so painful to witness, as he looked down
upon the paper, and then he placed the note before me--

'Read that, my dear.'

It began--

'MY DEAR LADY KNOLLYS.--You have favoured me with a note, adding your
request to that of Lord Ilbury, that I should permit my ward and my
daughter to avail themselves of Lady Mary's invitation. Being perfectly
cognisant of the ill-feeling you have always and unaccountably cherished
toward me, and also of the terms in which you have had the delicacy and the
conscience to speak of me before and to my child and my ward, I can only
express my amazement at the modesty of your request, while peremptorily
refusing it. And I shall conscientiously adopt effectual measures to
prevent your ever again having an opportunity of endeavouring to destroy my
influence and authority over my ward and my child, by direct or insinuated
slander.

'Your defamed and injured kinsman,

SILAS RUTHYN.'

I was stunned; yet what could I plead against the blow that was to isolate
me? I wept aloud, with my hands clasped, looking on the marble face of the
old man.

Without seeming to hear, he folded and sealed his note, and then pr