could have been more naturally introduced, or more delicately managed,
than my wife's brief reference to the subject. No matter. The reading
of the first line was enough. Lady Janet shut her eyes and destroyed the
letter--Lady Janet is determined to live and die absolutely ignorant of
the true story of 'Mercy Merrick.' What unanswerable riddles we are! Is
it wonderful if we perpetually fail to understand one another?"

SIXTH EXTRACT.

"The morning after the ball.

"It is done and over. Society has beaten Lady Janet. I have neither
patience nor time to write at length of it. We leave for Plymouth by the
afternoon express.

"We were rather late in arriving at the ball. The magnificent rooms were
filling fast. Walking through them with my wife, she drew my attention
to a circumstance which I had not noticed at the time. 'Julian,' she
said, 'look round among the lades, and tell me if you see anything
strange.' As I looked round the band began playing a waltz. I observed
that a few people only passed by us to the dancing-room. I noticed next
that of those few fewer still were young. At last it burst upon me. With
certain exceptions (so rare as to prove the rule), there were no
young girls at Lady Janet's ball. I took Mercy at once back to the
reception-room. Lady Janet's face showed that she, too, was aware of
what had happened. The guests were still arriving. We received the
men and their wives, the men and their mothers, the men and their
grandmothers--but, in place of their unmarried daughters, elaborate
excuses, offered with a shameless politeness wonderful to see. Yes! This
was how the matrons in high life had got over the difficulty of meeting
Mrs. Julian Gray at Lady Janet's house.

"Let me do strict justice to every one. The ladies who _were_ present
showed the needful respect for their hostess. They did their duty--no,
overdid it, is perhaps the better phrase.

"I really had no adequate idea of the coarseness and rudeness which have
filtered their way through society in these later times until I saw the
reception accorded to my wife. The days of prudery and prejudice are
days gone by. Excessive amiability and excessive liberality are the
two favorite assumptions of the modern generation. To see the women
expressing their liberal forgetfulness of my wifely misfortunes, and the
men their amiable anxiety to encourage her husband; to hear the same set
phrases repeated in every room--'So charmed to make your acqu