imself willing to give you that release. The debt due to him, or
rather to his late father, has now been paid by the estate, and
I think you will find that he will make no difficulty. After that
anything that he may require shall be done to forward his views."

"Am I to take my things?" she asked.

"Sarah shall pack them up, and they shall be sent after you if it be
decided that you are to stay with Lady Lovel." They then went to bed.

In all this neither the Serjeant nor his wife had been "on the
square." Neither of them had spoken truly to the girl. Mrs. Bluestone
had let the Countess know that with all her desire to assist her
ladyship, and her ladyship's daughter, she could not receive Lady
Anna back in Bedford Square. As for that sending of her things upon
certain conditions,--it was a simple falsehood. The things would
certainly be sent. And the Serjeant, without uttering an actual lie,
had endeavoured to make the girl think that the tailor was in pursuit
of money,--and of money only, though he must have known that it was
not so. The Serjeant no doubt hated a lie,--as most of us do hate
lies; and had a strong conviction that the devil is the father of
them. But then the lies which he hated, and as to the parentage of
which he was quite certain, were lies told to him. Who yet ever met
a man who did not in his heart of hearts despise an attempt made by
others to deceive--himself? They whom we have found to be gentler in
their judgment towards attempts made in another direction have been
more than one or two. The object which the Serjeant had in view was
so good that it seemed to him to warrant some slight deviation from
parallelogrammatic squareness;--though he held it as one of his first
rules of life that the end cannot justify the means.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

IT IS STILL TRUE.

On Sunday they all went to church, and not a word was said about the
tailor. Alice Bluestone was tender and valedictory; Mrs. Bluestone
was courteous and careful; the Serjeant was solemn and civil. Before
the day was over Lady Anna was quite sure that it was not intended
that she should come back to Bedford Square. Words were said by the
two girls, and by Sarah the waiting-maid, which made it certain that
the packing up was to be a real packing up. No hindrance was offered
to her when she busied herself about her own dresses and folded up
her stock of gloves and ribbons. On Monday morning after breakfast,
Mrs. Bluestone nearly br