at man about Sir Francis Geraldine."

"What makes you think that, my dear?"

"Think it! I know it. It was not likely that there should be much
talk about Sir Francis either in the cathedral or at the breakfast;
but one can tell from other things whether a subject has been
avoided. These are plain when little things would have been said but
are not said. There has been no allusion made to their reason for
leaving the house."

"I don't see that it signifies much, my dear."

"Oh; doesn't it? What would you have thought if after I had become
engaged to you you had found that a month or two before I had been
engaged to another man?"

"It is more than twelve months, my dear."

"No, it is not more than twelve months since first they met in Italy.
I know what I am talking about, and you need not contradict me.
You'll find that he'll learn it of a sudden, and then all the fat
will be in the fire. I know what men are." It was thus that the
gentle Mrs. Green expressed herself on the subject to her husband.

At the Deanery the matter was spoken of in a different tone but still
with similar feelings. "I don't think Cecilia has ever yet said a
word to that poor man as to her engagement with Francis. I cannot
tell what has put it into my mind, but I think that it is so." It was
thus that Mrs. Hippesley spoke to the Dean.

"Your brother behaved very badly;--very badly," said the Dean.

"That has got nothing to do with it. Mr. Western won't care a straw
whether Francis behaved well or ill. And for the matter of that I
don't think that as yet we quite know the truth of it. Nor would he
care if his wife had behaved ill to the other man, so long as she
behaved well to him. But if he has heard nothing of it and now finds
it out, he's not the man I take him to be if he don't let her hear of
it."

"It's nothing to us," said the Dean.

"Oh, no; it's nothing to us. But you'll see that what I say comes
true."

In this way all the world of Cecilia's friends were talking on the
matter which she had mentioned to no one. She still hoped that her
husband might have heard the story, and that he kept it buried in his
bosom. But it never occurred to her that it would become matter of
discussion among her friends at Exeter.

There was one other person who also discussed it very much at his
ease. Sir Francis Geraldine among his friends in London had been
congratulated on his safe but miraculous escape. With a certain
number of men he had