y two miles off I hope that you and Mrs.
Western will come and see it."

This was addressed exclusively to Cecilia, and made an answer of some
kind absolutely necessary. "I fear that we are going to Scotland
very shortly," she said; "and my husband is not much in the habit of
visiting."

This was uncivil enough, but Sir Francis did not take it amiss. He
sat there for twenty minutes, and even made allusion to their former
intimacy at Exeter.

"I am quite well aware how happily all that has ended," he said;--"at
any rate on your side of the question. You have done very well and
very wisely. And I,"--he laughed as he said this,--"have succeeded in
getting over it better than might have been expected. At any rate I
hope that there will be no ill-will. I shall do myself the honour of
asking you and Mr. Western to come and dine with me at the Criterion.
It is the little place that Lord Tomahawk had last year." Then he
departed without another word from Cecilia Western.

"Now he must be told," whispered Miss Altifiorla the moment the door
was closed. "My dear, if you will think of it all round you will
perceive that this can be done by no one so well as by myself. I will
go to Mr. Western the moment he comes in, and get through it all in
half an hour."

"You will do nothing of the kind," said Mrs. Western.

"Let me pray you. Let me implore you. Let me beseech you."

"You will do nothing of the kind. I will admit of no interference in
the matter."

"Interference! You cannot call it interference."

"I will not have you to speak to my husband on the subject."

"But what will you do?"

"Whatever I do shall be done by myself alone."

"But you must tell him instantly. You cannot allow this man to come
and call and yet say nothing about it. And he would not have called
without some previous acquaintance. This you will have to describe,
and if you say that you merely knew him at Exeter, there will be
in that case an additional fib." The use of such words applied to
herself by this woman was intolerable. But she could only answer them
by an involuntary frown upon her brow. "And then," continued Miss
Altifiorla, "of course he will refer to me. He will conclude that as
you knew Sir Francis at Exeter I must have known him. I cannot tell a
fib."

She could not tell a fib! And that was uttered in such a way as to
declare that Mrs. Western had been fibbing. I cannot tell a fib! "You
will leave me at any rate to mind my own