one thing, I don't believe that people make such plots. And
what plotting was needed? Couldn't any one have told you what a girl
like Fanny French would do if she lost her head among people of a higher
class?'

'Then Mrs. Damerel must have foreseen it. That's just what I say. She
pretended to be a friend to the girl, on purpose to ruin her.'

'Have you accused her of it?'

'Yes, I have.' His eyes flashed. Nancy marvelled at this fire,
drawn from a gentle nature by what seemed to her so inadequate, so
contemptible a cause. 'Of course she denied it, and got angry with me;
but any one could see she was glad of what had happened. There's an end
between us, at all events. I shall never go to see her again; she's
a woman who thinks of nothing but money and fashion. I dislike her
friends, every one of them I've met. I told her that what she had done
ought to be a punishable crime.'

Nancy reflected, then said quietly:

'Whether you are right or wrong, I don't think you would have got any
good from her. But will you tell me what you are going to do? I told you
that I thought borrowing money only to live on it in idleness was very
foolish.'

Her brother stiffened his neck.

'You must allow me to judge for myself.'

'But have you judged for yourself? Wasn't it by Mrs. Damerel's advice
that you gave up business?'

'Partly. But I should have done it in any case.'

'Have you any plans?'

'No, I haven't,' he answered. 'You can't expect a man to have plans
whose life has been thoroughly upset.'

Nancy, reminded of his youthfulness by the tone in which he called
himself a 'man,' experienced a revival of natural feeling. Though
revolting against the suggestion that a woman akin to them had been
guilty of what her brother believed, she was glad to think that Fanny
French had relinquished all legitimate claim upon him, and that his
connection with 'smart' society had come to an end. Obvious enough were
the perils of his situation, and she, as elder sister, recognised a duty
towards him; she softened her voice, and endeavoured to re-establish the
confidence of old time. Impossible at once, though with resolution she
might ultimately succeed. Horace, at present, was a mere compound of
agitated and inflamed senses. The life he had been leading appeared in
a vicious development of his previously harmless conceit and egoism.
All his characteristics had turned out, as it were, the seamy side; and
Nancy with difficulty preserved