uation in some other way.

Mrs. Wade listened intently, and the story seemed to move her in no
slight degree. Lilian, anxiously watching her face, found it difficult
to interpret the look of suppressed excitement. Censure she could not
read there; pain, if ever visible, merely flitted over brow and lips;
at moments she half believed that her hearer was exulting in this
defiance of accepted morality--what else could be the significance of
that flash in the eyes; that quiver of the nostrils--all but a
triumphant smile? They sat close to each other, Lilian in the low
basket-chair, the widow on a higher seat, and when the story came to an
end, their hands met.

"How can I save Denzil?" was Lilian's last word. "Anything--any
sacrifice! If this becomes known, his whole life is ruined!"

Mrs. Wade pressed the soft, cold fingers, and kept a thoughtful silence.

"It's a strange coincidence," she said at length, "very strange that
this should happen on the eve of the election."

"The secret _must_ be kept until"----

Lilian's voice failed. She looked anxiously at her friend, and added:

"What would be the result if it were known afterwards-when Denzil is
elected?"

"It's hard to say. But tell me, Lily: is there _no_ one who has been
admitted to your confidence?"

What purpose would be served by keeping back the name? Lilian's eyes
fell as she answered.

"Mr. Glazzard knows."

"Mr. Eustace Glazzard?"

Lilian explained how and when it had become necessary to make him a
sharer in the secret.

"Do you believe," Mrs. Wade asked, "that Northway really discovered you
by chance?"

"I don't know. He says so. I can only feel absolutely sure that Mr.
Glazzard has nothing to do with it."

Mrs. Wade mused doubtfully.

"Absolutely sure?"

"Oh, how is it possible? If you knew him as well as we
do!--Impossible!--He came to see us this very morning, on his way to be
married, and laughed and talked!"

"You are right, no doubt," returned the other, with quiet reassurance.
"If it wasn't chance, some obscure agency has been at work. You must
remember, Lily, that only by a miracle could you have lived on in
security."

"I have sometimes felt that," whispered the sufferer, her head falling.

"And it almost seems," went on Mrs. Wade, "as if Northway really had no
intention of using his power to extort money. To be sure, your own
income is not to be despised by a man in his position; but most rascals
would have gone to Mr. Qua