e two whole five-pound
notes imprudently placed within it, when she heard a footstep on the
gravel path which led up from a small wicket to the front door. The
path ran near the drawing-room window, and she was just in time
to catch a glimpse of the last fold of a passing cloak. "It is
Justinia," she said to herself; and her heart became disturbed at the
idea of again discussing the morning's adventure. "What am I to do,"
she had said to herself before, "if she wants me to beg her pardon? I
will not own before her that he is in the wrong."

And then the door opened--for the visitor made her entrance without
the aid of any servant--and Lady Lufton herself stood before her.
"Fanny," she said at once, "I have come to beg your pardon."

"Oh, Lady Lufton!"

"I was very much harassed when you came to me just now;--by more
things than one, my dear. But, nevertheless, I should not have spoken
to you of your husband as I did, and so I have come to beg your
pardon." Mrs. Robarts was past answering by the time that this was
said, past answering at least in words; so she jumped up, and with
her eyes full of tears, threw herself into her old friend's arms.
"Oh, Lady Lufton!" she sobbed forth again.

"You will forgive me, won't you?" said her ladyship, as she returned
her young friend's caress. "Well, that's right. I have not been at
all happy since you left my den this morning, and I don't suppose you
have. But, Fanny, dearest, we love each other too well, and know each
other too thoroughly, to have a long quarrel, don't we?"

"Oh, yes, Lady Lufton."

"Of course we do. Friends are not to be picked up on the road-side
every day; nor are they to be thrown away lightly. And now sit down,
my love, and let us have a little talk. There, I must take my bonnet
off. You have pulled the strings so that you have almost choked me."
And Lady Lufton deposited her bonnet on the table, and seated herself
comfortably in the corner of the sofa.

"My dear," she said, "there is no duty which any woman owes to any
other human being at all equal to that which she owes to her husband,
and, therefore, you were quite right to stand up for Mr. Robarts this
morning." Upon this Mrs. Robarts said nothing, but she got her hand
within that of her ladyship and gave it a slight squeeze.

"And I loved you for what you were doing all the time. I did, my
dear; though you were a little fierce, you know. Even Justinia admits
that, and she has been at me ever s