sh, more I am afraid. The wickedness of that country! And I fear
it has affected ours. Even now--I am not a scandal-monger, and I hope
for the best--but even last winter he was talked about,' Mrs. Malory
dropped her voice, 'with a lady whose husband is in America, Mrs. Brown-
Smith.'

'A lady for whom I have the very highest esteem,' said Merton, for,
indeed, Mrs. Brown-Smith was one of his references or Lady Patronesses;
he knew her well, and had a respect for her character, _au fond_, as well
as an admiration for her charms.

'You console me indeed,' said Mrs. Malory. 'I had heard--'

'People talk a great deal of ill-natured nonsense,' said Merton warmly.
'Do you know Mrs. Brown-Smith?'

'We have met, but we are not in the same set; we have exchanged visits,
but that is all.'

'Ah!' said Merton thoughtfully. He remembered that when his enterprise
was founded Mrs. Brown-Smith had kindly offered her practical services,
and that he had declined them for the moment. 'Mrs. Malory,' he went on,
after thinking awhile, 'may I take your case into my consideration--the
marriage is not till October, you say, we are in June--and I may ask for
a later interview? Of course you shall be made fully aware of every
detail, and nothing shall be done without your approval. In fact all
will depend on your own co-operation. I don't deny that there may be
distasteful things, but if you are quite sure about this gentleman's--'

'Character?' said Mrs. Malory. 'I am _so_ sure that it has cost me many
a wakeful hour. You will earn my warmest gratitude if you can do
anything.'

'Almost everything will depend on your own energy, and tolerance of our
measures.'

'But we must not do evil that good may come,' said Mrs. Malory nervously.

'No evil is contemplated,' said Merton. But Mrs. Malory, while
consenting, so far, did not seem quite certain that her estimate of
'evil' and Merton's would be identical.

She had suffered poignantly, as may be supposed, before she set the
training of a lifetime aside, and consulted a professional expert. But
the urbanity and patience of Merton, with the high and unblemished
reputation of his Association, consoled her. 'We must yield where we
innocently may,' she assured herself, 'to the changes of the times. Lest
one good order' (and ah, how good the Early Victorian order had been!)
'should corrupt the world.' Mrs. Malory knew that line of poetry. Then
she remembered that Mrs. Brown-Smi