rs. Snape and Cashett. But
in this matter the lawyers did not prevail. They had taken their orders
from the lady, and must look to the lady for payment. They who best
knew Mr. Philogunac Coelebs thought that he had escaped cheaply, as
there had been many fears that he should make the Baroness altogether
his own.

"I am so glad she has gone," said Mary, when she heard the story. "I
should never have felt safe while that woman was in the country. I'm
quite sure of one thing. I'll never have anything more to do with
disabilities. George need not be afraid about that."

CHAPTER LXI.

THE NEWS COMES HOME.

During those last days of the glory of the Baroness, when she was
driving about London under the auspices of Philogunac Coelebs in her
private brougham and talking to everyone of the certainty of her coming
success, Lord George Germain was not in London either to hear or to see
what was going on. He had gone again to Naples, having received a
letter from the British Consul there telling him that his brother was
certainly dying. The reader will understand that he must have been most
unwilling to take this journey. He at first refused to do so, alleging
that his brother's conduct to him had severed all ties between them;
but at last he allowed himself to be persuaded by the joint efforts of
Mr. Knox, Mr. Stokes, and Lady Sarah, who actually came up to London
herself for the purpose of inducing him to take the journey. "He is not
only your brother," said Lady Sarah, "but the head of your family as
well. It is not for the honour of the family that he should pass away
without having someone belonging to him at the last moment." When Lord
George argued that he would in all probability be too late, Lady Sarah
explained that the last moments of a Marquis of Brotherton could not
have come as long as his body was above ground.

So urged the poor man started again, and found his brother still alive,
but senseless. This was towards the end of March, and it is hoped that
the reader will remember the event which was to take place on the 1st
of April. The coincidence of the two things added of course very
greatly to his annoyance. Telegrams might come to him twice a-day, but
no telegram could bring him back in a flash when the moment of peril
should arrive, or enable him to enjoy the rapture of standing at his
wife's bedside when that peril should be over. He felt as he went away
from his brother's villa to the nearest hote