ght be relieved. And yet
he was angry with her! This was unreasonable. How much had she done for
him! Was she not striving every hour of her life to love him, and, at
any rate, to comfort him with the conviction that he was loved? Was she
not constant in her assurance to herself that her whole life should be
devoted to him? And yet he was surly to her simply because his brother
had disgraced himself! When she was left alone she sat down and cried,
and then consoled herself by remembering that her father was coming to
her.

It had been arranged that the last days of February should be spent by
Lord George with his mother and sisters at Cross Hall, and that the
Dean should run up to town for a week. Lord George went down to
Brotherton by a morning train, and the Dean came up on the same
afternoon. But the going and coming were so fixed that the two men met
at the deanery. Lord George had determined that he would speak fully to
the Dean respecting his brother. He was always conscious of the Dean's
low birth, remembering, with some slight discomfort, the stable-keeper
and the tallow-chandler; and he was a little inclined to resent what he
thought to be a disposition on the part of the Dean to domineer. But
still the Dean was a practical, sagacious man, in whom he could trust;
and the assistance of such a friend was necessary to him. Circumstances
had bound him to the Dean, and he was a man not prone to bind himself
to many men. He wanted and yet feared the confidence of friendship. He
lunched with the Dean, and then told his story. "You know," he said,
"that my brother is married?"

"Of course, we all heard that."

"He was married more than twelve months before he informed us that he
was going to be married."

"No!"

"It was so."

"Do you mean, then, that he told you a falsehood?"

"His letter to me was very strange, though I did not think much of it
at the time. He said, 'I am to be married'--naming no day."

"That certainly was--a falsehood, as, at that time, he was married."

"I do not know that harsh words will do any good."

"Nor I. But it is best, George, that you and I should be quite plain in
our words to each other. Placed as he was, and as you were, he was
bound to tell you of his marriage as soon as he knew it himself. You
had waited till he was between forty and fifty, and, of course, he must
feel that what you would do would depend materially upon what he did."

"It didn't at all."

"And then, h