o anything further)--she certainly would not care to--"I wish we
could keep this fiasco from her knowledge," he muttered.

Had it been possible, he would have dropped the hapless young widow out
of sight and ken, like a pebble in a pond. Her name should never have
been mentioned by him or his,--and if by others, he would have replied
curtly and conclusively that she had gone to live with her husband's
people.

Confound it all, there must be _some_ people to hang on to? It had of
course been a great point at the beginning of the connection that young
Stubbs stood alone in the world, and his not having a soul belonging to
him had been emphasised as one of the assets of the match,--but with the
new change of affairs, surely some vulgar old uncle or cousin could be
unearthed to be made use of?

His auditor, however, had steadily shaken her head. She did not
repudiate the suggestion on any ground other than that of its
impossibility--but on this she took her stand with that accurate
knowledge of her father which provided her influence over him.

He had just yielded the point, and she had mooted the idea of receiving
her sister back to the home of her childhood, when we are admitted to
hear the explosive "She _can't_ come," with which our chapter opens.

We know how the battle went, and to what was due the victory, if such it
could be called, on the part of Miss Boldero. She had discovered a
secret--a shabby secret which the general had hitherto been careful to
lock tight within his own breast--and armed with this she could do as
she chose about Leonore--but her triumph cost her dear.

No one would have believed how dear. No one would have supposed that the
person who of all others knew the ill-conditioned old soldier best, who
knew him in and out and through and through, could retain for so poor a
creature a spark of feeling other than that engendered by the tie of
blood. To Maud and Sybil their father was simply "He,"--and to catch him
out, or catch him tripping on any occasion, the best fun imaginable--but
their half-sister suffered from every exposure, and when possible hid
the offence out of that charity which is love.

She was not a clever woman, she was in some respects a fool. People
would exclaim, "Oh, _that_ Miss Boldero!" on finding which of the three
it was who had been met and talked with. There was nothing worth hearing
to be got out of poor old Sue. No gossip, no chatter--not even sly
details of the gene