ho had groaned in spirit over the ignorance
displayed in his evidence before the committee, were whispering
among themselves that he ought not to be sent back to his seat of
government at all.

Lady Rowley also was disappointed and unhappy. She had expected so
much pleasure from her visit to her daughter, and she had received so
little! Emily's condition was very sad, but in her heart of hearts
perhaps she groaned more bitterly over all that Nora had lost, than
she did over the real sorrows of her elder child. To have had the cup
at her lip, and then not to have tasted it! And she had the solace of
no communion in this sorrow. She had accepted Hugh Stanbury as her
son-in-law, and not for worlds would she now say a word against him
to any one. She had already taken him to her heart, and she loved
him. But to have had it almost within her grasp to have had a lord,
the owner of Monkhams, for her son-in-law! Poor Lady Rowley!

Sophie and Lucy, too, were returning to their distant and dull
banishment without any realisation of their probable but unexpressed
ambition. They made no complaint, but yet it was hard on them
that their sister's misfortune should have prevented them from
going,--almost to a single dance. Poor Sophie and poor Lucy! They
must go, and we shall hear no more about them. It was thought well
that Nora should not go down with them to Southampton. What good
would her going do? "God bless you, my darling," said the mother, as
she held her child in her arms.

"Good-bye, dear mamma."

"Give my best love to Hugh, and tell him that I pray him with my
last word to be good to you." Even then she was thinking of Lord
Peterborough, but the memory of what might have been was buried deep
in her mind.

"Nora, tell me all about it," said Lucy.

"There will be nothing to tell," said Nora.

"Tell it all the same," said Lucy. "And bring Hugh out to write a
book of travels about the Mandarins. Nobody has ever written a book
about the Mandarins." So they parted; and when Sir Marmaduke and his
party were taken off in two cabs to the Waterloo Station, Nora was
taken in one cab to Eccleston Square.

It may be doubted whether any old lady since the world began ever did
a more thoroughly Christian and friendly act than this which was now
being done by Lady Milborough. It was the end of July, and she would
already have been down in Dorsetshire, but for her devotion to this
good deed. For, in truth, what she was doing was