n of Montfort House
in town and Montfort Court in the country. But Montfort is deeper than
people think for. No, he never forgave her. She was never asked here;
took it to heart, went to Rome, and died."

At this moment the door opened, and George Morley, now the Rev. George
Morley, entered, just arrived to join his cousins.

Some knew him, some did not. Lady Selina, who made it a point to know
all the cousins, rose graciously, put aside the slippers, and gave him
two fingers. She was astonished to find him not nearly so shy as he used
to be: wonderfully improved; at his ease, cheerful, animated. The
man now was in his right place, and following hope on the bent of
inclination. Few men are shy when in their right places. He asked
after Lady Montfort. She was in her own small sitting-room,
writing letters,--letters that Carr Vipont had entreated her to
write,--correspondence useful to the House of Vipont. Before long,
however, a servant entered, to say that Lady Montfort would be
very happy to see Mr. Morley. George followed the servant into
that unpretending sitting-room, with its simple chintzes and quiet
bookshelves,--room that would not have been too fine for a cottage.

CHAPTER X.

In every life, go it fast, go it slow, there are critical pausing-
places. When the journey is renewed the face of the country is
changed.

How well she suited that simple room; herself so simply dressed, her
marvellous beauty so exquisitely subdued! She looked at home there, as
if all of home that the house could give were there collected.

She had finished and sealed the momentous letters, and had come, with a
sense of relief, from the table at the farther end of the room, on which
those letters, ceremonious and conventional, had been written,--come to
the window, which, though mid-winter, was open, and the redbreast, with
whom she had made friends, hopped boldly almost within reach, looking at
her with bright eyes and head curiously aslant. By the window a single
chair, and a small reading-desk, with the book lying open. The short
day was not far from its close, but there was ample light still in the
skies, and a serene if chilly stillness in the air without.

Though expecting the relation she had just summoned to her presence, I
fear she had half forgotten him. She was standing by the window deep in
revery as he entered, so deep that she started when his voice struck her
ear and he stood before her. She recovere