til he
had a talk with Captain Burnett and found out that Kester was to go to
Woodcote.'

'Oh yes, of course; Michael intended that all along.'

'True, and I ought not to have flurried myself. But if you only knew
what I went through at Headingly, and the unkind things that people said
of me! A burnt child dreads the fire, and I was determined that no one
should have an opportunity of speaking against me at Rutherford. What a
hard world it is, Miss Ross! Just because I am--well'--with a little
laugh--'what you call good-looking--why should I deny the truth? I am
sure I care little about my looks except for Cyril's sake; but just
because I am not plain, people take advantage of my unprotected
position. Oh, the things that were said!' with a quick frown of
annoyance at the recollection. 'I daresay some of them have reached your
ears. Haven't you heard, for example, that I tried to set my cap at Dr.
Forester, only his daughter grew alarmed and insulted me so grossly that
I vowed never to speak to him again? Have you not heard that, Miss
Ross?'

Audrey was obliged to confess that something of this story had reached
her.

'But I did not believe it, Mrs. Blake, and I do not believe it now,' she
continued hastily.

Mrs. Blake's eyes filled with indignant tears.

'It was not true--not a word of it!' she returned in a low vehement
voice. 'You may ask Cyril. Oh, how angry he was when the report reached
him! He came home and took me in his arms and said we should not stay
there--no one should talk against his mother. They did say such horrid
things against me, Miss Ross; and yet how could I help Dr. Forester
calling on me sometimes? He was never invited--no one asked him to
repeat his visits. Mollie will tell you I was barely civil to him. I
suppose he admired me, that is the truth; and his daughter knew it, and
it made her bitter. Well, after that, I declared that nothing would
induce me to receive gentlemen again, unless they were Cyril's friends
and he brought them himself.'

Audrey was silent. She had been very angry when Geraldine had told her
the story. She had declared it was a pure fabrication--a piece of
village gossip.

'Besides, if it were true,' she had continued, 'where is the harm of a
wealthy widower, with one daughter, falling in love with a good-looking
widow? And yet Edith Bryce seems to hint darkly at some misconduct on
Mrs. Blake's part.'

'You are putting it too strongly, dear,' replied her sister