interests by an--"

"An alliance," suggested Mrs. Western.

"If you please,--though I am quite aware that you use the term as a
sneer." As to this Mrs. Western was too honest to deny the truth, and
remained silent.

"I thought it proper," continued Miss Altifiorla, "as we had been so
long friends, to inform you that it will be so. You had your chance,
and as you let it slip I trust that you will not envy me mine."

"Not in the least."

"At any rate you do not congratulate me."

"I have been very remiss. I acknowledge it. But upon my word the news
has so startled me that I have been unable to remember the common
courtesies of the world. I thought when I heard of your travelling up
to London together that you were becoming very intimate."

"Oh, it had been ever so much before that,--the intimacy at least. Of
course I did not know him before he came to this house. But a great
many things have happened since that; have there not? Well, good-bye,
dear. I have no doubt we shall continue as friends, especially as we
shall be living almost in the neighbourhood. Castle Gerald is to be
at once fitted up for me, and I hope you will forget all our little
tiffs, and often come and stay with me." So saying, Miss Altifiorla,
having told her grand news, made her adieus and went away.

"A great many things have happened since that," said Cecilia,
repeating to herself her friend's words. It seemed to her to be so
many that a lifetime had been wasted since Sir Francis had first
come to that house. She had won the love of the best man she had
ever known, and married him, and had then lost his love! And now
she had been left as a widowed wife, with all the coming troubles
of maternity on her head. She had understood well the ill-natured
sarcasm of Miss Altifiorla. "We shall be living almost in the same
neighbourhood!" Yes; if her separation from her husband was to be
continued, then undoubtedly she would live at Exeter, and, as far as
the limits of the county were concerned, she would be the neighbour
of the future Lady Geraldine. That she should ever willingly be
found under the same roof with Sir Francis was, as she knew well, as
impossible to Miss Altifiorla as to herself. The invitation contained
the sneer, and was intended to contain it. But it created no anger.
She, too, had sneered at Miss Altifiorla quite as bitterly. They had
each learned to despise the other, and not to sneer was impossible.
Miss Altifiorla had come to