iced that the hair on the top of his head was not so thick as of
yore.

The situation was indeed getting desperate, since Lady Sue would be of
age in three months, when all revenues for her maintenance would cease.

"Methinks her million will go to one of those young jackanapes who hang
about her," sighed Mistress de Chavasse, with almost as much bitterness
as Sir Marmaduke had shown.

Her fortunes were in a sense bound up with those of her brother-in-law.
He had been most unaccountably kind to her of late, a kindness which his
many detractors attributed either to an infatuation for his brother's
widow, or to a desire to further irritate his uncle the Earl of
Northallerton, who--a rigid Puritan himself--hated the play-actress and
her connection with his own family.

"Can naught be done, Marmaduke?" she asked after a slight pause, during
which she had watched anxiously the restless figure of her
brother-in-law as he paced up and down the narrow hall.

"Can you suggest anything, my dear Editha?" he retorted roughly.

"Pshaw!" she ejaculated with some impatience, "you are not so old, but
you could have made yourself agreeable to the wench."

"You think that she would have fallen in love with her middle-aged
guardian?" he exclaimed with a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "That girl? ...
with her head full of romantic nonsense ... and I ... in ragged doublet,
with a bald head, and an evil temper ... Bah!!! ... But," he added, with
an unpleasant sneer, "'tis unselfish and disinterested on your part, my
dear Editha, even to suggest it. Sue does not like you. Her being
mistress here would not be conducive to your comfort."

"Nay! 'tis no use going on in this manner any longer, Marmaduke," she
said dejectedly. "Pleasant times will not come my way so long as you
have not a shilling to give me for a new gown, and cannot afford to keep
up my house in London."

She fully expected another retort from him--brutal and unbridled as was
his wont when money affairs were being discussed. He was not accustomed
to curb his violence in her presence. She had been his helpmeet in many
unavowable extravagances, in the days when he was still striving after a
brilliant position in town. There had been certain rumors anent a
gambling den, whereat Mistress de Chavasse had been the presiding spirit
and which had come under the watchful eye of my Lord Protector's spies.

Now she had perforce to share her brother-in-law's poverty. At any rate
he prov