e of his own nation, he might
have escaped a deal of unhappiness, and saved a most amiable creature
much more sorrow than falls to the lot of the least fortunate of her own
country. I conclude you have some influence over him?"

"As much, perhaps, as any one; but even that says little."

"Can you not use it, therefore, to make him repair a great wrong?"

"You had some plan, I think?" said he, hesitatingly.

"Yes; I have written to her to come down here. I have pretended that
her presence is necessary to certain formalities about the sale of the
villa. I mean that they should meet, without apprising either of them. I
have sent the boy out of the way to Pontremoli to make me a copy of some
frescoes there; till the success of my scheme be decided, I did not wish
to make him a party to it."

"You don't know Glencore,--at least as I know him."

"There is no reason that I should," broke she in. "What I would try is
an experiment, every detail of which I would leave to chance. Were this
a case where all the wrong were on one side, and all the forgiveness
to come from the other, friendly aid and interposition might well be
needed; but here is a complication which neither you, nor I, nor any one
else can pretend to unravel. Let them meet, therefore, and let Fate--if
that be the name for it--decide what all the prevention and planning in
the world could never provide for."

"The very fact that their meeting has been plotted beforehand will
suggest distrust."

"Their manner in meeting will be the best answer to that," said she,
resolutely. "There will be no acting between them, depend upon 't."

"He told me that he had destroyed the registry of their marriage, nor
does he know where a single witness of the ceremony could be found."

"I don't want to know _how_ he could make the _amende_ till I know that
he is ready to do it," said she, in the same calm tone.

"To have arranged a meeting with the boy had perhaps been better than
this. Glencore has not avowed it, but I think I can detect misgivings
for his treatment of the youth."

"This was my first thought, and I spoke to young Massy the evening
before Lord Glencore arrived. I led him to tell me of his boyish days
in Ireland and his home there; a stern resolution to master all emotion
seemed to pervade whatever he said; and though, perhaps, the effort may
have cost him much, his manner did not betray it. He told me that he
was illegitimate, that the secret was divulge