to put out a feeler by
asking whether he knew what her husband had been, and he said he
believed he had been lost at sea, but he, Mr. Spyers I mean, had only
been at Micklethwayte three or four years, and had merely known her as
a widow.'

'I suppose it is worth following up,' said Mark, rather reluctantly. 'I
wish I had seen her. I think I should know Miss Headworth again, and
she would hardly know me.'

'You see what comes of absconding.'

'After all, it was best,' said Mark. 'Supposing her to be the real
woman, which I don't expect, it might have been awkward if she had
heard my name! How can we ascertain the history of this person without
committing ourselves?'

Lord Kirkaldy, an able man, who had been for many years a diplomatist,
here joined the party, and the whole story was laid before him. He was
new to Micklethwayte, having succeeded a somewhat distant kinsman, and
did not know enough of the place to be able to fix on any one to whom
to apply for information; but the result of the consultation was that
Lady Kirkaldy should go alone to call on Miss Headworth, and explain
that she was come to inquire about a young lady of the same name, who
had once been governess to the children of her sister, Lady Adelaide
Egremont. Mark was rather a study to his uncle and aunt all the
evening. He was as upright and honourable as the day, and not only
acted on high principle, but had a tender feeling to the beautiful
playfellow governess, no doubt enhanced by painful experiences of
successors chosen for their utter dissimilarity to her. Still it was
evidently rather flat to find himself probably so near the tangible
goal of his romantic search; and the existence of a first cousin had
been startling to him, though his distaste was more to the taking her
from second-rate folk in a country town than to the overthrow of his
own heirship. At least so he manifestly and honestly believed, and
knowing it to be one of those faiths that make themselves facts, the
Kirkaldys did not disturb him in it, nor commiserate him for a loss
which they thought the best thing possible for him.

Miss Headworth was accustomed to receive visitors anent boarders, so
when Lady Kirkaldy's card was brought to her, the first impression was
that some such arrangement was to be made. She was sitting in her
pretty little drawing-room alone, for Nuttie and her mother had gone
out for a walk with Miss Nugent.

The room, opening on the garden, an