tter, that half in which Alice had attempted to describe
what had taken place between her and Mr Grey. In doing this, Kate
had been a wicked traitor,--a traitor to that feminine faith against
which treason on the part of one woman is always unpardonable in
the eyes of other women. But her treason would have been of a deeper
die had she sent the latter portion, for in that Alice had spoken
of George Vavasor himself. But even of this treason, Kate would, I
think, have been guilty, had the words which Alice wrote been of a
nature to serve her own purpose if read by her brother. But they had
not been of this nature. They had spoken of George as a man with
whom any closer connection than that which existed at present was
impossible, and had been written with the view of begging Kate to
desist from making futile attempts in that direction. "I feel myself
driven," Alice had said, "to write all this, as otherwise,--if I were
simply to tell you that I have resolved to part from Mr Grey,--you
would think that the other thing might follow. The other thing cannot
follow. I should think myself untrue in my friendship to you if I did
not tell you about Mr Grey; and you will be untrue in your friendship
to me if you take advantage of my confidence by saying more about
your brother." This part of Alice's letter Kate had not sent to
George Vavasor;--"But the other thing shall follow," Kate had said,
as she read the words for the second time, and then put the papers
into her desk. "It shall follow."

To give Kate Vavasor her due, she was, at any rate, unselfish in
her intrigues. She was obstinately persistent, and she was moreover
unscrupulous, but she was not selfish. Many years ago she had made
up her mind that George and Alice should be man and wife, feeling
that such a marriage would be good at any rate for her brother. It
had been almost brought about, and had then been hindered altogether
through a fault on her brother's part. But she had forgiven him this
sin as she had forgiven many others, and she was now at work in
his behalf again, determined that they two should be married, even
though neither of them might be now anxious that it should be so. The
intrigue itself was dear to her, and success in it was necessary to
her self-respect.

She answered Alice's letter with a pleasant, gossiping epistle, which
shall be recorded, as it will tell us something of Mrs Greenow's
proceedings at Yarmouth. Kate had promised to stay at Yarmo