; but this would be an after consideration, and one as to
which she need not at present pay especial attention. Sir Francis
had squeezed her hand most affectionately, and there had been a
subsequent meeting at Exeter, where he had stayed a couple of hours
as he went through to his own property. And she was sure that he had
stayed for the purpose of meeting her. Since that affair with Cecilia
Holt he had not been made warmly welcome at the Deanery. Yet he had
stayed and had absolutely called upon Miss Altifiorla. He had found
her and had discussed Mr. and Mrs. Western with much sarcastic
humour. "Now you haven't!" Miss Altifiorla had said, when he told her
of the letter he had written. "How could you be so hard upon the poor
man?" "Perhaps the lady may think that I have been hard upon her,"
Sir Francis had replied. "Perhaps she will know the meaning of tit
for tat. Perhaps she will understand now that one good turn deserves
another. It was not that I cared so much for her," he said. "I'd got
to feel that she was far too virtuous for me, too stuck up, you'll
understand. I wasn't at all disappointed when she played me that
trick. She didn't turn out the sort of girl that I had taken her for.
I knew that I had had an escape. But, nevertheless, tit for tat is
fair on both sides. She played me a trick, and now I've played her
one and we are even. We can each go to work again. She began a little
too soon, perhaps, for her own comfort; but that's her affair and not
mine."

In answer to all this, Miss Altifiorla had only laughed and smiled
and declared that Cecilia had been served right, though she
thought,--she said that she thought,--that Sir Francis had been
almost too hard. "That's my way of doing business," he had added. "If
anyone wants me to run straight, they must begin by running straight
themselves. I can be as sweet as new milk if I'm well treated." Then
there had been a moment in which Miss Altifiorla had almost expected
that he was going to do something preparatory to declaring himself.
She was convinced that he was about to kiss her; but at the very
moment at which the event had been expected, Mrs. Green had been
announced and the kiss did not, alas, come off. She could hardly
bring herself to be civil to Mrs. Green when Sir Francis declared
that he must go to the station.

CHAPTER XVI.

"IT IS ALTOGETHER UNTRUE."

The month of September wore itself away at Exeter very sadly. An
attempt was made to bi