idence their meeting; but altogether Lady
Anne thought it was best to say nothing about the circumstance to
grandmamma. I myself am puzzled to say which would have been the better
course to pursue under the circumstances; there were so many courses
open. As they had gone so far, should they go on farther together?
Suppose they were going to the same house at Brighton, oughtn't they
to have gone in the same carriage, with Kuhn and the maid of course?
Suppose they met by chance at the station, ought they to have travelled
in separate carriages? I ask any gentleman and father of a family, when
he was immensely smitten with his present wife, Mrs. Brown, if he had
met her travelling with her maid, in the mail, when there was a vacant
place, what would he himself have done?

CHAPTER XLII. Injured Innocence

From Clive Newcome, Esq., to Lieut.-Col. Newcome, C.B.

"Brighton, June 12, 18--.

"My Dearest Father,--As the weather was growing very hot at Naples,
and you wished I should come to England to see Mr. Binnie, I came
accordingly, and have been here three weeks, and write to you from Aunt
Honeyman's parlour at Brighton, where you ate your last dinner before
embarking for India. I found your splendid remittance calling in Fog
Court, and have invested a part of the sum in a good horse to ride, upon
which I take my diversion with other young dandies in the Park. Florac
is in England, but he has no need of your kindness. Only think! he is
Prince de Moncontour now, the second title of the Duc d'Ivry's family;
and M. le Comte de Florac is Duc d'Ivry in consequence of the demise
of t'other old gentleman. I believe the late duke's wife shortened
his life. Oh, what a woman! She caused a duel between Lord Kew and
a Frenchman, which has in its turn occasioned all sorts of evil and
division in families, as you shall hear.

"In the first place, in consequence of the duel and of incompatibility
of temper, the match between Kew and E. N. has been broken off. I met
Lord Kew at Naples with his mother and brother, nice quiet people as you
would like them. Kew's wound and subsequent illness have altered him
a good deal. He has become much more serious than he used to be; not
ludicrously so at all, but he says he thinks his past life has been
useless and even criminal, and he wishes to change it. He has sold
his horses, and sown his wild oats. He has turned quite a sober quiet
gentleman.

"At our meeting he told me of what had h