s of reasoning that were
false and led to some conclusions that were muddled and untrue.

Through such minds as her mother's and Lady Adela's no clear truth could
come, and yet it was through such minds as these that the Duchess's
influence descended upon Lizzie.

It descended now with regard to Francis Breton. It told Lizzie that
Breton had been proved by society to be a scoundrel, that he should be
no worthy man's friend, that he belonged to that world, the world of
shadows and past misadventures, that no proper soul might, with honesty,
investigate.

This was what the Duchess told to Lizzie and perhaps by so doing
increased her sympathy with the sinner.

II

It must not be supposed that Mrs. Rand had not, at first, been unsettled
by scruples.

The fact that Breton was, in the eyes of the Beaminster family, a
ne'er-do-well who had brought disgrace upon the family name had, for a
time, distressed her, but the romantic hope of being herself the agent
of his restoration to his grandmother, and the delightful manners of the
scoundrel when he appeared, killed her alarm. Mrs. Rand's mind was a
dark misty place except when the candles of romance were lit; when
_they_ flamed, blown by the wind though they might be, there was, around
the candlesticks at any rate, a real and even splendid blaze.

One afternoon, towards the end of July, Mrs. Rand meeting Breton on
their doorstep was moved to ask him whether he would come in and spend
the evening with them, if he had nothing better to do. They had only a
simple little meal, and would he please not bother to dress? Breton said
that he would be delighted.

Mrs. Rand had been, that afternoon, to a romantic comedy in which ladies
and gentlemen with French accents had made love and escaped together and
been caught together and been married together. Mrs. Rand had gone quite
alone into the pit and had returned with tears in her eyes and affection
for all the world.

So she had asked Mr. Breton to dinner.

After a while, however, she was a little uncertain. Daisy was away in
the country with friends. How would Lizzie then like this unexpected
visitor? Mrs. Rand was, quite frankly, frightened of Lizzie and
complained of her a good many times a week to Daisy. Lizzie was for
ever interfering with innocent pleasures; Lizzie was mean and unromantic
and unimaginative; Lizzie was thoroughly tiresome.

The fact that Lizzie worked incessantly for her mother and her sister
never