you all the
boy told me, at the time."

"Ye-es. I remember the particulars, generally. You said the row wasn't
his fault."

"His fault?--no, indeed! The fellow drew a knife upon him. You know he
was that awful miscreant, Daverill. There wasn't a crime he hadn't
committed. But old Moses killed him--splendidly! By Jove, I _should_
like to have seen that!"

"Really, Percy, if you talk in that dreadful way, I won't listen to
you."

"Can't help it, my dear, can't help it! Fancy being able to kill such a
damnable beast at a single blow!" The undertone in which Mr. Pellew went
on speaking to his wife may have contained some particulars of
Daverill's career, for she said:--"Well--I can understand your feeling.
But we won't talk about it any more, please!"

Whereto the reply was:--"All right, my dear. I'll bottle up. Suppose we
turn round. It's high time to be getting home." So the chairman put
energies into a return towards the tunnel. But for all that, the lady
went back to the subject, or its neighbourhood. "Wasn't he somehow mixed
up with that old Mrs. Alibone at Chorlton--Dave's aunt she is, I
believe. At least, he always calls her so."

"Aunt Maria? Of course. She _is_ his Aunt Maria. He was--or had
been--Aunt Maria's husband. But people said as little about that as they
could. He had been an absentee at Norfolk Island--a convict. That old
chap she married--old Alibone--- he's the great authority on horseflesh.
Tim found it out when they came to Chorlton to stay at the very old
lady's--what's her name?"

"Mrs. Marrable." Here Mrs. Pellew suddenly became luminous about the
facts, owing to a connecting link. "Of course! Mrs. Marrable was the
twin sister."

"A--oh yes!--the twin sister.... I remember ... at least, I don't. Not
sure that I do, anyhow!"

"Foolish man! Can't you remember the lovely old lady at Clo
Dalrymple's?..."

"She _was_ the one I carried upstairs. I should rather think I did
recollect her. She weighed nothing."

"Oh yes--_you_ remember all about it. Mrs. Marrable's twin sister from
Australia."

"Of course! Of course! Only I'd forgotten for the moment what it was I
didn't remember. Cut along!"

"I was not saying anything."

"No--but you were just going to."

"Well--I was. It was _her_ grave in Chorlton Churchyard."

"That what?"

"That Gwen and our girl went to put the flowers on, three weeks ago."

"By-the-by, when are the honeymooners coming back?"

"The Crespignys? Very soon n