ly feelings of a lower order. And she had
learned to intrigue, not being desirous of gaining aught by dishonest
intriguing, but believing that she could only hold her own by
carrying on her battle after that fashion. In all this I am speaking
of the general character of the woman, and am not alluding to the
one sin which she had committed. Thus, when she had first become
acquainted with Miss Amedroz, her conscience had not rebuked her
in that she was deceiving her new friend. When asked casually in
conversation as to her maiden name, she had not blushed as she
answered the question with a falsehood. When, unfortunately, the
name of her first husband had in some way made itself known to Clara
she had been ready again with some prepared fib. And when she had
recognised William Belton, she had thought that the danger to herself
of having any one near her who might know her, quite justified her
in endeavouring to create ill-will between Clara and her cousin.
"Self-preservation is the first law of nature," she would have
said; and would have failed to remember, as she did always fail to
remember,--that nature does not require by any of its laws that
self-preservation should be aided by falsehood.

But though she was not high-minded, so also was she not ungenerous;
and now, as she began to understand that Clara was sacrificing
herself because of that promise which had been given when they two
had stood together at the window in the cottage drawing-room, she
was capable of feeling more for her friend than for herself. She was
capable even of telling herself that it was cruel on her part even
to wish for any continuance of Clara's acquaintance. "I have made
my bed, and I must lie upon it," she said to herself; and then she
resolved that, instead of going up to the house on the following
day, she would write to Clara, and put an end to the intimacy which
existed between them. "The world is hard, and harsh, and unjust," she
said, still speaking to herself. "But that is not her fault; I will
not injure her because I have been injured myself."

Colonel Askerton was up at the house on the same day, but he did
not ask for Miss Amedroz, nor did she see him. Nobody else came to
the house then, or on the following morning, or on that afternoon,
though Clara did not fail to tell herself that Captain Aylmer might
have been there if he had chosen to take the journey and to leave
home as soon as he had received the message; and she made t